/J. 


VI';?;'MJ   ^ 


JAN  29  1917 


*,-'#tStoa 


THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 


An  MUtptttntlan  of  tijt  £ngliat|  Sibk 


The  Hebrew  Monarchy 


V/^  BY 

B.  H.  CARROLL,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

President  of  Southwestern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary 


EDITED  BY 

J.  B.  CRANFILL,  LL.D. 


New  York        Chicago        Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1916,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Sq. 
Edinburgh:    100    Princess    St. 


CHAPTER 

I. 

11. 
III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 
XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 
XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Editor's  Introduction v 

Author's  Introduction i 

Early  Life  of  Samuel 7 

Fall  of  Eli  and  Rise  of  Samuel 21 

The  Schools  of  the  Prophets 31 

Samuel  and  the  Monarchy 41 

Saul  the  First  King 50 

Saul  the  First  King  (Continued) 60 

The  Passing  of  Saul  and  His  Dynasty    68 
Saul's     Unpardonable     Sin     and    Its 

Penalty    79 

David  Chosen  as  Saul's  Successor 91 

The  War  Between  Love  and  Hate 105 

Saul's  Murderous  Pursuit  of  David 117 

David  and  His  Army 127 

Ziklag,  Endor  and  Gilboa 138 

Historical  Introduction  to  II  Samuel 

AND  I  Chronicles 151 

David  King  of  Judah — The  War  With 

THE  House  of  Saul 160 

David  Made  King  Over  All  Israel 168 

The  Wars  of  David 178 

Three  Dark  Events  in  David's  Career.   188 
Bringing  Up  the  Ark — A  Central  Place 

of  Worship 204 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXI.    David's  Kindness  Towards  Jonathan's 

Son   215 

XXII.    Numbering  the  People — History  of  Ab- 
salom     224 

XXIII.  The  Death  of  Absalom — Preparation 

FOR  Solomon 232 

XXIV.  David  as  an  Organizer 241 

XXV.    The  Empire  of  Solomon 249 

XXVI.  Solomon's  Accession  and  Dream 262 

XXVII.  Analysis  of  Solomon's  Wisdom 274 

XXVIII.  The  Works  of  Solomon 285 

XXIX.  Dedication  of  the  Temple 295 

XXX.  Fall  and  End  of  Solomon 308 


EDITOR^S  INTRODUCTION 

THE  Hebrew  Monarchy"  is  the  eleventh  volume  of 
"Carroll's  Interpretation  of  the  English  Bible." 
They  have  been  published  in  the  following  order: 
"Revelation,"  "Genesis,"  "Exodus-Leviticus,"  "Numbers  to 
Ruth,"  "The  Pastoral  Epistles,"  "Daniel  and  the  Inter- 
Biblical  Period,"  "The  Four  Gospels,"  Volume  I,  "The  Four 
Gospels,"  Volume  II,  "The  Acts,"  and  "James,  Thessa- 
lonians,  Corinthians." 

The  present  volume  concerns  itself  with  the  transition 
period  marking  the  change  of  the  government  of  the 
Hebrew  nation  from  that  of  the  judges  to  that  of  the  kings. 
Only  three  kings  are  considered — Saul,  David  and  Solomon. 
The  book  is  of  intense  interest  from  its  opening  sentence 
to  its  closing  word.  There  is  nothing  known  to  me  in  the 
catalogue  of  commentaries  covering  this  period  that  is  more 
luminous  or  that  holds  a  greater  interest  for  the  Bible  stu- 
dent than  the  present  volume.  Not  only  does  Dr.  Carroll 
deal  with  the  history,  which  in  itself  grips  the  reader  with 
an  enduring  charm,  but  as  he  progresses  in  the  interpretation 
of  the  history  he  brings  to  us  lessons  new  and  old  out  of  the 
Divine  Word  that  cannot  fail  to  edify,  enlighten,  and 
strengthen  every  one  who  shall  be  so  fortunate  as  to  peruse 
these  pages. 

In  going  over  this  manuscript  and  preparing  it  for  publi- 
cation I  feel  that  I  have  been  treading  upon  sacred  ground. 
It  was  revised  by  Dr.  Carroll  in  his  last  illness  while  he  lay 
in  bed,  and  the  marks  of  his  fast  increasing  infirmity  of 
body  abound  throughout  the  volume.  His  mind  was  keen 
and  incisive  to  the  end,  and  never  shone  brighter  than  in  hi$ 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

labors  on  this  discussion  of  the  last  of  the  judges,  the  first 
of  the  prophets,  and  the  first  of  the  kings  of  the  Hebrew 
people. 

In  his  interpretation  of  the  Bible  Dr.  Carroll  is  at  once 
plain,  simple  and  profound.  His  words  are  those  that  are 
loved  and  used  in  the  every-day  speech  of  the  multitude. 
He  has  never  sought  to  be  technical  or  didactical.  On  the 
contrary,  by  every  means  at  his  command  (and  he  was  a 
master  of  English  diction  and  composition),  he  has  sought 
to  clarify  the  text  of  the  English  Bible  and  so  interpret  it 
as  to  bring  it  within  the  radius  of  the  comprehension  of  the 
unlettered,  while  at  the  same  time  investing  it  with  deep 
interest  for  the  scholar.  In  all  the  range  of  literature  of  its 
class  there  is  none  that  shows  a  more  intimate  understanding 
of  the  popular  mind  and  at  the  same  time  of  God's  Word 
and  its  adaptation  to  the  hearts  of  the  common  people  than 
"Carroll's  Interpretation  of  the  English  Bible." 

In  his  last  illness  Dr.  Carroll  was  greatly  concerned  for 
the  proper  presentation  and  exploitation  of  this  and  the 
other  volumes  that  compose  this  series.  He  realized  that 
his  earthly  labors  had  come  to  a  close,  and  that  the  revision 
of  his  future  works  must  be  performed  by  other  hands.  So 
it  has  fallen  out  that  Rev.  J.  W.  Crowder  and  the  writer  of 
this  introduction  have  in  hand  the  final  shaping  of  this  and 
the  other  volumes  that  are  to  follow. 

More  and  more  as  I  have  addressed  myself  anew  to  this 
task  have  I  been  impressed  with  the  strength  and  wisdom  of 
these  words  of  Dr.  Cunningham  Geikie  which  appear  in  the 
preface  to  the  second  volume  of  his  "Hours  with  the  Bible:" 
"Life  is  so  short  and  its  responsibilities  so  great,  that  hon- 
est diligence  is  alike  a  necessity  and  a  duty."  With  this 
motto  thus  borne  in  upon  my  heart  I  shall  with  re-doubled 
energy,  earnestness  and  zeal  labor  to  perform  the  task  that  I 
undertook  while  the  great  Dr.  B.  H.  Carroll  was  in  the  flush 
of  perfect  health,  and  which,  because  he  has  now  gone  home 


EDITOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

to  God,  he  will  never  be  able  personally  to  supervise  or 
complete. 

In  view  of  the  wide-spread  ignorance  of  the  Word  of 
God  I  sincerely  hope  that  this  and  the  other  books  of  this 
series  will  find  a  large  and  increasing  circulation.  Their 
reading  and  their  study  cannot  fail  to  be  an  abiding  blessing 
to  all  who  shall  peruse  or  meditate  upon  their  pages.  Like 
a  light-house  on  some  rock-bound  coast,  they  shine  out  in  a 
world  of  spiritual  darkness  and  invite  the  tempest-tossed  on 
the  sea  of  life  to  come  thither  and  find  shelter  from  life's 
harassing  storms. 

Thus  this  volume  is  given  to  the  world,  bearing  with  it  the 
impress  of  the  greatest  life  it  has  ever  been  mine  personally 
to  know,  and  the  prayers  of  this  writer  that  God's  grace, 
"bright  as  the  light  and  soft  as  the  dew,"  will  rest  upon  its 
pages  and  upon  the  heart  of  every  one  to  whom  this  book 
shall  come. 

J.  B.  Cranfill. 

Dallas,  Texas. 


I 

AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION 

THE  general  theme  of  this  section  is  "The  Hebrew 
Monarchy."  The  text-book  is  Crockett's  "Harmony 
of  Samuel,  Kings  and  Chronicles."  The  collateral 
text-book  is  Wood's  "Hebrew  Monarchy."  The  best  and 
most  convenient  commentary  on  Samuel  is  Kirkpatrick's, 
in  the  Cambridge  Bible. 

Other  good  text-books  on  Samuel  and  his  times  are: 
Edersheim's  "History  of  Israel,"  Vol.  IV;  Dean's  "Samuel 
and  Saul ;"  Hengstenberg's  "Kingdom  of  God  in  the  O.  T.," 
Vol.  II ;  Hengstenberg's  "Christology  of  the  O.  T.,"  Vol.  I ; 
Stanley's  "Jewish  Church;"  Geikie's  "Hours  with  the 
Bible;"  Geikie's  "Bible  Characters — Eli,  Samuel,  Saul;" 
Sampey's  "Syllabus;"  Josephus.  A  good  special  commen- 
tary on  Chronicles  is  Murphy's. 

I  Chronicles  8,  9  and  10  parallels  I  Samuel,  and  the  im- 
portant distinctions  between  Samuel  and  Kings  on  the  one 
part,  and  Chronicles  on  the  other  part,  are : 

1.  In  the  time  of  composition  and  in  the  authors,  Samuel 
and  Kings  were  written  by  authors  contemporary  with  the 
events,  but  Chronicles  was  all  compiled  by  Ezra  after  the 
downfall  of  the  monarchy. 

2.  The  purpose  was  different.  Samuel  and  Kings  aim 
to  give  a  continuous  history  by  contemporaneous  authors, 
of  all  Israel  from  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom,  first 
showing  the  transition  from  Judges  to  Kings,  then  the 
division  of  the  kingdom,  then  the  history  of  the  kingdoms 
to  the  downfall  of  each,  a  period  of  five  hundred  years,  all 
continuous  history  by  contemporaneous  authors.    But  the 

1 


a  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

purpose  of  Chronicles  is  unique.  Ignoring  the  Northern 
kingdom,  it  is  designed  to  show  merely  the  genealogy  and 
history  of  the  Davidic  line  alone,  in  which  the  national 
union  is  preserved,  and,  commencing  with  Adam,  it  shows 
the  persistence  of  national  life  after  the  downfall  of  the 
monarchy.  Its  viewpoint  is  the  restoration  after  the  cap- 
tivity by  Babylon.  And  while,  indeed,  the  compiler  uses 
the  material  of  contemporaneous  historians,  or  material  of 
historians  contemporaneous  with  the  events  as  they  came 
to  pass,  yet  it  is  used  as  a  retrospect. 

3.  Chronicles  is  a  new  and  different  beginning  of  Jewish 
history,  rooting  in  Genesis,  and  becomes  the  introduction  of 
all  exile  and  post-exile  O.  T.  books,  and  for  the  uninspired 
books  of  the  inter-biblical  period,  and  hence  is  a  preparation 
for  the  coming  Messiah  in  the  Davidic  line. 

4.  Hence  the  first  seven  chapters  of  Chronicles  parallel 
O.  T.  books  prior  to  Samuel,  and  its  last  paragraph  goes 
beyond  Kings  in  showing  the  connection  with  post-exile 
history. 

5.  While  it  is  proper  to  use  Chronicles  in  the  Harmony 
with  Samuel  and  Kings,  one  who  studies  Chronicles  in  the 
Harmony  only,  can  never  get  its  true  conception.  As  to 
the  title,  "Samuel,"  to  the  two  books  which  bear  that  name, 
the  following  explanation  is  apropos: 

1.  In  the  Jewish  enumeration  the  two  books  are  one. 
A  note  at  the  end  of  II  Samuel  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  still 
treats  the  two  books  as  one,  and  Eusebius,  the  great  church 
historian,  quotes  Origen  to  the  effect  that  the  Jews  of  his 
day  counted  the  books  one.     Josephus  so  counts  them. 

2.  The  meaning  of  the  title  is  two-fold:  (a)  Up  to 
the  death  of  Samuel  it  means  the  author  of  the  book,  and 
(b)  as  applied  to  the  whole  book  it  means  the  principal 
hero  of  the  story  up  to  the  time  of  David. 

I.  Considering  the  history  and  the  sources  of  the  mate- 
rial, we  learn  from  I  Chronicles  29 :  29  that  the  history  of 


THE  AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION  3 

the  reign  of  David  is  ascribed  to  three  prophets — Samuel, 
Nathan  and  Gad;  and  from  other  passages  in  Chronicles 
we  learn  that  other  prophets  took  up  the  story.  So  far  as 
the  scope  of  I  and  II  Samuel  extends  we  may  well  say  that 
the  writers  were  Samuel,  Nathan  and  Gad,  i.e.,  Samuel  up 
to  I  Samuel  25,  then  Nathan  and  Gad. 

2.  I  Chronicles  27:24  tells  us  of  the  state-records  of 
David's  reign,  and  from  these  records  may  have  been  ob- 
tained such  matter  as  appears  in  II  Samuel  8:16-18;  20: 
23-26;  23:8-39. 

3.  In  I  Samuel  10:25  we  learn  that  the  charter  of  the 
kingdom  is  expressly  said  to  have  been  written  by  Samuel. 

4.  It  is  very  probable  that  the  national  poetic  literature 
furnished  Hannah's  song,  I  Samuel  2:  i-io;  David's  lament 
for  Abner,  II  Samuel  3 :  33,  34 ;  David's  Thanksgiving,  II 
Samuel  22,  which  is  also  the  same  as  Psalm  18;  the  last 
words  of  David,  II  Samuel  23 : 1-7.  David's  lament  for 
Saul  and  Jonathan,  II  Samuel  i :  18-27,  is  expressly  said 
to  be  taken  from  the  book  of  Jasher. 

Certain  passages  in  the  book  itself  bear  on  the  date  of 
the  compilation  in  its  present  form: 

1.  There  is  an  explanation  in  I  Samuel  9 : 9  of  old  terms 
which  would  be  necessary,  for  the  terms  were  not  in  use 
when  the  book  was  compiled. 

2.  There  is  a  reference  to  obsolete  customs  in  II  Samuel 

13:18. 

3.  The  phrase  "unto  this  day"  is  repeated  seven  times  :• 
I  Samuel  5:5,  6:18,  2y:6,  30:25;  II  Samuel  4:3,  6:8, 
18:18. 

4.  II  Samuel  5 : 5  refers  to  the  whole  reign  of  David. 

5.  In  the  Septuagint,  but  not  in  the  Hebrew,  there  are 
references  extending  to  Rehoboam,  Solomon's  son. 

6.  In  I  Samuel  27:6  mention  of  the  kings  of  Judah 
seems  to  imply  that  the  divisions  of  the  kingdom  in  Reho- 


4  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

boam's  day  had  taken  place.  The  conclusion  as  to  the  date 
of  the  present  form  is  that  it  was  compiled  soon  after  the 
division  of  the  kingdom.  The  canonicity  of  Samuel  has 
never  been  questioned.  It  is  remarkably  accurate,  and  every 
way  reliable.  Each  part  is  the  language  of  the  contempo- 
raneous historian  who  was  an  eyewitness  of  the  scenes, 
though  there  are  some  parts  difficult  to  harmonize,  which 
will  be  noticed  particularly  as  they  come  up. 

The  materials  for  the  text  are  the  Hebrew  Manuscript, 
and  the  versions,  towit:  The  Septuagint,  the  Chaldean,  or 
Aramaic,  and  the  Vulgate.  Our  manuscripts  of  the  Sep- 
tuagint are  mainly  the  Alexandrian  Manuscript  of  the  5th 
century  A.  D.,  and  the  Vatican  Manuscript  of  the  4th  cen- 
tury. The  Alexandrian  Manuscript  conforms  most  nearly 
to  the  Hebrew  text,  there  being  an  important  variation  in 
the  Vatican  Manuscript  from  the  Hebrew  text  that  will  be 
subsequently  noted.  The  Chaldean,  or  Aramaic  version, 
commonly  known  as  the  Targum  of  Jonathan  Ben  Uzziel, 
is  more  a  commentary  or  paraphrase  than  a  translation, 
and  that,  too,  of  the  later  Jews.  In  the  third  note  to  the 
Appendix  of  I  Samuel  in  the  Cambridge  Bible  you  will 
find  in  this  Targum  quite  a  remarkable  addition  to  Hannah's 
Song,  ascribing  to  her  a  prophecy  that  touches  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Philistines;  the  descendants  of  Samuel,  who 
form  a  part  of  the  Davidic  choir,  and  concerns  Sennacherib 
and  Nebuchadnezzar,  Greece,  Haman  and  Rome.  For  this 
prophecy,  there  is  no  inspired  foundation. 

Dr.  Sampey,  of  the  Louisville  Seminary,  says  that  the 
text  of  this  section  needs  editing  more  than  any  other  part 
of  the  Bible,  and  there  are  some  peculiarities  of  the  text 
which  we  will  now  take  up: 

1.  Certain  passages  exist  in  duplicate,  all  of  them  in  II 
Samuel  except  I  Samuel  31,  which  is  the  same  as  I  Chron- 
icles 10: 1-12. 

2.  There  are  others  remarkably  similar;  for  example, 


THE  AUTHOR'S  INTRODUCTION  5 

compare  the  account  in   chapters  23 :  19  to  24 ;  22   with 
chapter  26. 

3.  The  Septuagint  in  the  Vatican  Manuscript  differs 
from  the  Alexandrian  Manuscript,  and  also  from  the 
Hebrew,  in  omitting  a  considerable  part  of  chapters  17  and 
18.  The  omission  removes  certain  difficulties  but  creates 
others : 

4.  The  narrative  of  the  Witch  of  Endor  raising  the 
ghost  or  shade  of  Samuel  (chapter  28)  has  provoked  con- 
troversies in  every  age,  and  special  attention  will  be  given 
to  that  when  we  get  to  it. 

5.  In  I  Samuel  i :  3  will  be  found  an  entirely  new  name 
of  God.  It  is  not  found  in  any  antecedent  O.  T.  book  nor 
in  but  few  subsequent  O.  T.  books.  The  name  of  the  Lord 
of  Sabaoth,  which  means  the  "Lord  of  Hosts."  All  of 
these  peculiarities  will  be  noted  more  particularly  as  we 
come  to  them. 

The  following  is  Dr.  Kirkpatrick's  analysis  of  I  Samuel : 

I.    The  close  of  the  period  of  the  Judges,  chapters  1-7. 

1.  The  early  life  of  Samuel,  extending  from  i :  i 

to  4:  la. 

2.  The  judgments  of  Eli  and  the  loss  of  the  Ark, 

4:ib-7:i. 

3.  The  judicial  life  of  Samuel,  7:2-17. 

II.    The  foundation  of  the  monarchy,  chapters  8-31. 

1.  The  appointment  of  the  first  king,  chapters 

8-10. 

2.  Saul's  reign  unto  his  rejection,  chapters  11-15. 

3.  Decline  of  Saul  and  rise  of  David,  chapters 

16-31. 


6  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  general  theme  of  this  section? 

2.  What  the  text-book? 

3.  What  the  collateral  text-book? 

4.  What  the  best  and  most  convenient  commentary  on  Samuel?' 

5.  What  other  good  text-books  on  Samuel  and  his  times  ? 

6.  What  special  commentary  on  Chronicles  commended? 

7.  What  part  of  I  Chronicles  parallels  I  Samuel? 

8.  What  important  distinctions  between  Samuel  and  Kings  on  the 
one  part,  and  Chronicles  on  the  other  part? 

9.  What  of  the  title,  "Samuel,"  to  the  two  books  which  bear  that 
name? 

10.  Who  wrote  the  history,  and  what  the  sources  of  the  material? 

11.  What  passages  in  the  book  itself  bear  on  the  date  of  the  com- 
pilation in  its  present  form? 

12.  What  the  conclusion  as  to  the  date  of  the  present  form? 

13.  What  of  the  canonicity  of  Samuel? 

14.  What  of  the  accuracy  and  reliability  of  the  history? 

15.  What  can  you  say  of  the  text  of  the  book  of  Samuel? 

16.  What  does  Dr.  Sampey  say  of  the  text? 

17.  What  peculiarities  of  the  text  noted? 

18.  Whose  analysis  commended,  and  what  its  main  divisions  and 
subdivisions  ? 


II 

THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL 
Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  62-66 

WE  omit  Part  I  of  the  text-book,  since  that  first 
part  is  devoted  to  genealogical  tables  taken  from 
I  Chronicles.  That  part  of  Chronicles  is  not  an 
introduction  to  Samuel  or  Kings,  but  an  introduction  to 
the  Old  Testament  books  written  after  the  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity.    To  put  that  in  now  would  be  out  of  place. 

We  need  to  emphasize  the  supplemental  character  of 
Chronicles.  Our  Harmony  indeed  will  show  from  time  to 
time  in  successive  details  the  very  important  contributions 
of  that  nature  in  Chronicles  not  found  in  any  form  in  the 
histories  of  Samuel  and  Kings,  nor  elsewhere  in  the  O.  T. ; 
but  to  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  this  new  matter  we  need 
to  glance  at  it  in  bulk,  not  in  detail,  as  its  parts  will  come 
up  later. 

There  are  twenty  whole  chapters  and  parts  of  twenty- 
four  other  chapters  in  Chronicles  occupied  with  matter  not 
found  in  other  books  of  the  Bible. 

This  is  a  considerable  amount  of  new  material,  and  is 
valuable  on  that  account,  but  it  is  still  more  valuable  be- 
cause it  presents  a  new  aspect  of  Hebrew  history  after  the 
captivity.  The  following  passages  in  Chronicles  contain 
new  matter :  I  Chronicles  2 :  18-55  J  3  •  19-24 ;  all  of  chap- 
ters 4,  5,  6,  7,  8  and  9 ;  chapter  11 :  41-47 ;  all  of  chapter  12 ; 
chapter  15:1-26;  all  of  chapters  22  to  29;  II  Chronicles 
6 :  40-42 ;  chapter  1 1 :  5-23  ;  chapter  12 : 4-8 ;  chapter  13:3- 
21;  chapter  14:3-15;  chapter  15:1-15;  chapter  16:7-10; 
all  of  chapters  17  and  19;  chapter  20:1-30;  chapter  21: 
2-4,  11-19;  and  chapter  24:15-22;  chapter  25:5-10,  12-16; 

7 


8  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

chapter  26 :  5-20 ;  chapter  27 : 4-6 ;  chapter  28 : 5-25 ;  chapter 
29:3-36;  all  of  chapters  30  and  31;  chapter  32:22,  23, 
26-31;  chapter  33: 11-19;  chapter  34^3-7;  chapter  35:2-17, 
25  ;  chapter  36 : 1 1-23. 

Whoever  supposed  that  there  was  that  much  material 
in  the  book  of  Chronicles  that  could  not  be  found  anywhere 
else?  One  can  study  Chronicles  as  a  part  of  a  Harmony 
with  Samuel  and  Kings,  but  if  that  were  the  only  way  it 
could  be  studied  he  would  never  get  the  true  significance 
of  it,  as  it  is  an  introduction  to  all  of  the  later  O.  T.  books. 
In  the  light  of  these  important  new  additions,  we  not  only 
see  the  introduction  of  all  subsequent  O.  T.  books  and  also 
inter-biblical  books  by  Jews,  but  must  note  the  transition 
in  thought  from  a  secular  Jewish  kingdom  to  an  approach- 
ing spiritual  Messianic  kingdom. 

We  thus  learn  that  O.  T.  prophecy  is  not  limited  to  dis- 
tinct utterances  foretelling  future  events,  but  that  the  whole 
history  of  the  Jewish  people  is  prophetic ;  not  merely  in  its 
narrative,  but  in  its  legislation,  in  its  types,  feasts.  Sab- 
baths, sacrifices,  offerings;  in  its  tabernacle  and  temple, 
with  all  of  their  divinely  appointed  worship  and  ritual,  and 
this  explains  why  the  historical  books  are  classed  as  pro- 
phetic, not  merely  because  prophets  wrote  them,  which  is 
true,  but  also  because  the  history  is  prophetic. 

In  this  fact  lies  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  hooks  in  all  of  their  parts.  The 
things  selected  for  record,  and  the  things  not  recorded,  are 
equally  forcible.  The  silence  equals  the  utterance.  This 
is  characteristic  of  no  other  literature,  and  shows  divine 
supervision  which  not  only  makes  necessary  every  part  re- 
corded, hut  so  correlates  and  adapts  the  parts  as  to  make 
a  perfect  literary  and  spiritual  structure  which  demands  a 
New  Testament  as  a  culmination. 

Moreover,  we  are  blind  if  we  cannot  see  a  special  Provi- 
dence preparing  a  leader  for  every  transition  in  Jewish 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  9 

history.  Just  as  Moses  was  prepared  for  deliverance  from 
Egypt,  and  for  the  disposition  of  the  law,  so  Samuel  is 
prepared,  not  only  to  guide  from  a  government  by  judges 
to  a  government  by  kings,  but,  what  is  very  much  more 
important,  to  establish  a  School  of  the  Prophets — a  theo- 
logical seminary. 

These  prophets  were  to  he  the  mouth-pieces  of  God  in 
speaking  to  kingly  and  national  conscience,  and  for  five 
hundred  years  afterwards,  become  the  orators,  poets,  his- 
torians and  reformers  of  the  nation,  and  so,  for  centuries, 
avert,  postpone  or  remedy,  national  disasters  provoked  by 
public  corruption  of  morals  and  religion. 

Counting  great  men  as  peaks  of  a  mountain  range,  and 
sighting  backwards  from  Samuel  to  Abraham,  only  one 
peak,  Moses,  comes  into  the  line  of  vision. 

There  are  other  peaks,  but  they  don't  come  up  high 
enough  to  rank  with  Abraham,  Moses  and  Samuel.  A  list 
of  the  twelve  best  and  greatest  men  in  the  world's  history 
must  include  the  name  of  Samuel.  When  we  come,  at  his 
death,  to  analyze  his  character  and  posit  him  among  the 
great,  other  things  will  be  said.  Just  now  we  are  to  find 
in  his  early  life  that  such  a  man  did  not  merely  happen; 
that  neither  heredity,  environment  nor  chance  produced  him. 

Samuel  was  born  at  Ramah,  lived  at  Ramah,  died  at 
Ramah  and  was  buried  at  Ramah.  Ramah  is  a  little  village 
in  the  mountains  of  Ephraim,  somewhat  north  of  the  city 
of  Jerusalem.  It  is  right  hard  to  locate  Ramah  on  any 
present  map  of  the  Holy  Land.  Some  would  put  it  south, 
some  north.  It  is  not  easy  to  locate  like  Bethlehem  and 
Shiloh. 

Samuel  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  but  was  not  a 
descendant  of  Aaron.  If  he  had  been  he  would  have  been 
either  a  high  priest  or  a  priest.  Only  Aaron's  descendants 
could  be  high  priests,  or  priests,  but  Samuel  belonged  to 
the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  from  I  Chronicles  6  you  may  trace 


10  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

his  descent.  The  tribe  of  Levi  had  no  continuous  landed 
territory  like  the  other  tribes,  but  was  distributed  among 
the  other  tribes.  That  tribe  belonged  to  God,  and  they  had 
no  land  assigned  them  except  the  villages  in  which  they 
lived  and  the  cities  of  refuge,  of  which  they  had  charge, 
and  so  Samuel's  father  could  be  called  an  Ephrathite  and 
yet  be  a  descendant  of  the  tribe  of  Levi — that  is,  he  was  a 
Levite  living  in  the  territory  of  Ephraim. 

The  bigamy  of  Samuel's  father  produced  the  usual  bitter 
fruit.  The  first  and  favorite  wife  had  no  children,  so  m 
order  to  perpetuate  his  name  he  took  a  second  wife,  and 
when  that  second  wife  bore  him  a  large  brood  of  children 
she  gloried  over  the  first  wife,  and  provoked  her  and  mocked 
at  her  for  having  no  children,  and  it  produced  a  great  bitter- 
ness in  Hannah's  soul.  The  history  of  the  Mormons  dem- 
onstrates that  bitterness  always  accompanies  a  plurality  of 
wives.  I  don't  see  how  a  woman  can  share  a  home  or 
husband  with  any  other  woman. 

We  will  now  consider  the  attitude  of  the  Mosaic  law 
toward  a  plurality  of  wives,  divorce,  etc.  In  Deuteronomy 
21 :  15-17  we  see  that  the  Mosaic  law  did  permit  an  existing 
custom.  It  did  not  originate  it  nor  command  it,  but  it  tol- 
erated the  universal  custom  of  the  times — a  plurality  of 
wives.  From  Deuteronomy  24: 1-4,  we  learn  that  the  law 
permitted  a  husband  to  get  rid  of  a  wife,  but  commanded 
him  to  give  her  a  bill  of  divorcement.  That  law  was  not 
made  to  encourage  divorce,  but  to  limit  the  evil  and  to  pro- 
tect the  woman  who  would  suffer  under  divorce.  Why  the 
law  even  permitted  these  things  we  see  from  Matthew  19: 
7,  8.  Our  Savior  there  tells  us  that  Moses,  on  account  of 
the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  permitted  a  man  to  put  away 
his  wife.  That  is  to  say,  that  nation  had  just  emerged  from 
slavery,  and  the  prevalent-  custom  all  around  them  permitted 
something  like  that,  and  because  they  were  not  prepared 
for  an  ideal  law  on  the  subject  on  account  of  the  hardness 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  11 

of  their  hearts,  Moses  tolerated,  without  commending  a 
plurality  of  wives  or  commanding  divorce — both  in  a  way 
to  mitigate  the  evil — but  when  Jesus  comes  to  give  His 
statute  on  the  subject  He  speaks  out  and  says,  ''Whosoever 
shall  put  away  his  wife  except  for  marital  infidelity  and 
marries  again  committeth  adultery,  and  whosoever  shall 
marry  her  that  is  put  away  committeth  adultery."  A 
preacher  in  a  recent  sermon,  as  reported,  discredited  that 
part  of  Matthew  because  not  found  also  in  Mark.  I  have 
no  respect  for  the  radical  criticism  which  makes  Mark  the 
only  credible  gospel,  or  even  the  norm  of  the  others.  Nor 
can  any  man  show  one  shred  of  evidence  that  it  is  so.  1 
have  a  facsimile  of  the  three  oldest  New  Testament  manu- 
scripts. What  Matthew  says  is  there,  and  may  not  be 
eliminated  on  such  principles  of  criticism. 

The  radical  critics  say  that  the  Levitical  part  of  the 
Mosaic  law  was  not  written  by  Moses,  but  by  a  priest  in 
Ezekiel's  time,  and  that  Israel  had  no  central  place  of  wor- 
ship in  the  period  of  the  judges,  but  this  section  shows  that 
they  did  have  a  central  place  of  worship  at  Shiloh,  and 
the  book  of  Joshua  shows  when  Shiloh  became  the  central 
place  of  worship.  The  text  shows  that  they  did  come  up 
yearly  to  this  central  place  of  worship,  and  that  they  did 
offer,  as  in  the  case  of  Hannah  and  Elkanah,  the  sacrifices 
required  in  Leviticus. 

In  Joshua  i8 :  i  we  learn  that  when  the  conquest  was 
finished  Joshua,  himself,  placed  the  Ark  and  the  Taber- 
nacle at  Shiloh,  and  constituted  it  the  central  place  of  wor- 
ship. In  this  section  we  learn  what  disaster  ended  Shiloh 
as  the  central  place  of  worship.  The  Ark  was  captured, 
and  subsequently  the  Tabernacle  was  removed,  and  that 
Ark  and  that  Tabernacle  never  got  together  again.  In 
Jeremiah  7:12  we  read:  "But  go  ye  now  unto  my  place 
which  was  in  Shiloh,  where  I  caused  my  name  to  dwell  at 
the  first,  and  see  what  I  did  to  it  for  the  wickedness  of  my 


12  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

people  Israel/*  Jeremiah  is  using  that  history  as  a  threat 
against  Jerusalem,  which  in  Jeremiah's  time  was  the  central 
place  of  worship.  His  lesson  was,  "If  you  repeat  the  wick- 
edness done  in  Samuel's  time  God  will  do  to  your  city  and 
your  home  what  He  did  to  Shiloh!' 

It  is  important  to  know  the  subsequent  separate  history 
of  the  Ark  and  the  Tabernacle,  and  when  and  where  an- 
other permanent  central  place  and  house  of  worship  were 
established.  The  Bible  tells  us  every  move  that  Ark  and 
that  Tabernacle  made,  and  when,  where  and  by  whom  the 
permanent  central  place  and  house  of  worship  were 
estabHshed. 

Eli  was  high  priest  at  Samuel's  birth.  In  those  genea- 
logical tables  that  we  omitted  from  I  Chronicles  we  see  that 
Eli  was  a  descendant  of  Aaron,  but  not  of  Eleazar,  the 
eldest  son ;  therefore,  according  to  the  Mosaic  law,  he  ought 
never  to  have  been  high  priest,  but  he  was,  and  I  will  have 
something  to  say  about  that  when  the  true  line  is  established 
later.  I  Samuel  4,  which  comes  in  the  next  chapter,  dis- 
tinctly states  that  Eli  judged  Israel  40  years,  and  he  was 
likely  a  contemporary  of  Samson.  But  Eli,  at  the  time  we 
know  him,  is  ninety-eight  years  old,  and  nearly  blind.  He 
was  what  we  call  a  good-hearted  man,  but  weak.  That 
combination  in  a  ruler  makes  him  a  curse.  Diplomats  tell 
us  "a  blunder  is  worse  than  a  crime,'*  in  a  ruler.  He  shows 
his  weakness  in  allowing  his  sons,  Hophni  and  Phinehas, 
to  degrade  the  worship  of  God.  They  were  acting  for  him, 
as  he  was  too  old  for  active  service.  The  most  awful  re- 
ports came  to  him  about  the  infamous  character  of  these 
sons,  who  occupied  the  highest  and  holiest  office  in  a  nation 
that  belonged  to  God. 

This  section  tells  us  that  he  only  remonstrated  in  his 
weak  way:  "My  sons,  it  is  not  a  good  report  that  I  hear 
about  you,'*  but  that  is  all  he  did.  As  he  was  judge  and 
high  priest,  why  should  he  prefer  his  sons  to  the  honor  of 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  13 

God?  Why  did  he  not  remove  them  from  positions  of 
trust  and  influence  ?  His  doom  is  announced  in  this  section, 
and  it  is  an  awful  one.  God  sent  a  special  prophet  to  him 
and  this  is  the  doom.  You  will  find  it  in  chapter  2,  com- 
mencing at  verse  30:  ^'Wherefore  the  Lord,  the  God  of 
Israel,  saith,  I  said  indeed  that  thy  house,  and  the  house  of 
thy  father,  should  walk  before  me  forever:  but  now  the 
Lord  saith,  Be  it  far  from  me;  for  them  that  honor  me  I 
will  honor,  and  they  that  despise  me  shall  be  lightly  es- 
teemed. Behold,  the  days  come,  that  I  will  cut  off  thine 
arm,  and  the  arm  of  thy  father's  house,  that  there  shall 
not  be  an  old  man  in  thine  house.  And  thou  shalt  see  an 
enemy  in  my  habitation  (Shiloh),  in  all  the  wealth  which 
God  shall  give  Israel :  and  there  shall  not  be  an  old  man 
among  thy  descendants  forever.  And  the  descendants  of 
thine,  whom  I  do  not  cut  of¥  from  mine  altar,  shall  live  to 
consume  thine  eyes,  and  grieve  thine  heart':  and  all  the 
increase  of  thine  house  shall  die  in  the  flower  of  their  age.'* 

Or  as  Samuel  puts  it  to  him,  we  read  in  chapter  3,  com- 
mencing at  verse  1 1 :  "And  the  Lord  said  unto  Samuel, 
Behold  I  will  do  a  thing  in  Israel,  at  which  both  the  ears  of 
every  one  that  heareth  it  shall  tingle.  In  that  day  I  shall 
perform  against  Eli  all  things  that  I  have  spoken  against 
his  house:  when  I  begin  I  will  also  make  an  end.  For  I 
have  told  him  that  I  will  judge  his  house  forever  for  the 
iniquity  which  he  knoweth,  because  his  sons  made  them- 
selves vile  and  he  restrained  them  not;  therefore  I  have 
sworn  unto  the  house  of  Eli  that  the  iniquity  of  Eli's  house 
shall  not  be  purged  with  sacrifice  nor  offering  forever." 

What  was  the  sign  of  his  doom?  The  same  passage 
answers:  "And  this  shall  be  a  sign  unto  thee,  that  shall 
come  upon  thy  two  sons,  on  Hophni  and  Phinehas:  in  one 
day  they  shall  die  both  of  them.  And  I  will  raise  me  up  a 
faithful  priest,  that  shall  do  according  to  that  which  is  in 
my  heart  and  in  my  mind:  and  I  will  build  him  a  sure 


14  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

house;  and  he  shall  walk  before  mine  anointed  forever. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  everyone  that  is  left  in  thy 
house  shall  come  and  bow  down  to  him  for  a  piece  of  silver 
and  a  loaf  of  bread."  That  was  the  sign.  In  the  time  of 
Solomon  the  priesthood  goes  back  to  the  true  line,  in  ful- 
fillment of  the  declaration  in  that  sign.  The  priesthood 
passes  away  from  Eli's  descendants  and  goes  back  where 
it  belongs — to  Zadok — who  is  a  descendant  of  Aaron's 
eldest  son. 

The  Philistine  nation  at  this  time  dominated  Israel.  The 
word,  "Philistines,"  means  emigrant-people  that  go  out 
from  their  native  land,  and  it  is  of  the  same  derivation  as 
the  word  "Palestine."  That  Holy  Land,  strangely  enough, 
takes  its  name  from  the  Philistines.  The  Phihstines  were 
descended  from  Mizraim,  a  child  of  Ham,  and  their  place 
was  in  Egypt.  Leaving  Egypt  they  became  "Philistines," 
that  is,  emigrants,  and  occupied  all  of  that  splendid  low- 
land on  the  western  and  southwestern  part  of  the  Jewish 
territory,  next  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  which  was  as  level 
as  a  plain,  and  as  fertile  as  the  Nile  valley.  There  they 
established  five  independent  cities,  which,  like  the  Swiss 
Cantons,  formed  a  confederacy.  While  each  was  independ- 
ent for  local  affairs,  they  united  in  offensive  and  defensive 
aUiances  against  other  nations,  and  they  had  complete  con- 
trol of  Southern  Judea  at  this  time.  Joshua  had  overpow- 
ered them,  but  the  conquest  was  not  complete.  They  rose 
up  from  under  his  power,  even  in  his  time,  and  in  the  time 
of  Samson  and  Eli  they  brought  Israel  into  a  pitiable  sub- 
jection. They  were  not  allowed  to  have  even  a  grindstone. 
If  they  wanted  to  sharpen  an  axe  they  had  to  go  and  borrow 
a  Philistine's  grindstone,  and  what  a  good  text  for  a  sermon ! 

Woe  to  the  man  that  has  to  sharpen  the  implement  with 
which  he  works  in  the  shop  of  an  enemy!  Woe  to  the 
Southern  preacher  that  goes  to  a  radical  critic's  Seminary  in 
order  to  sharpen  his  theological  axe! 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  16 

Speaking  of  the  evils  of  a  plurality  of  wives,  we  found 
Hannah  in  great  bitterness  of  heart  because  she  had  no 
child,  and  we  saw  her  lingering  at  the  central  place  of 
worship,  and  without  saying  words  out  loud,  her  lips  were 
moving,  and  her  face  was  as  one  entranced,  so  that  Eli 
thinks  she  is  drunk.  The  N.  T.  tells  us  of  a  certain  Hke- 
ness  between  intoxication  with  ardent  spirits  and  intoxica- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit.  She  told  him  that  she  was  praying. 
When  her  child  was  born  she  came  back  and  said  to  him, 
*'l  am  the  woman  that  you  thought  was  drunk,  but  I  was 
praying,"  and  then  she  uses  this  language:  "I  prayed  for 
this  child,"  holding  the  little  fellow  up  in  her  hands,  "and 
I  vowed  that  if  God  would  give  him  to  me  I  would  lend 
him  to  the  Lord  all  the  days  of  his  life,"  and  therefore  she 
brings  him  to  be  consecrated  perpetually  to  God's  service. 
The  scripture  brings  all  that  out  beautifully. 

So  the  text  speaks  of  the  woes  pronounced  on  a  parent 
who  put  off  praying  for  and  restraining  his  children  until 
they  were  grown.  Like  Hannah  we  should  commence  pray- 
ing for  them  before  they  are  born;  pray  for  them  in  the 
cradle,  and  if  you  make  any  promise  or  vow  to  God  for 
them,  keep  the  vow. 

I  know  a  woman  who  had  many  children  and  kept  pray- 
ing that  God  would  send  her  one  preacher  child,  promising 
to  do  everything  in  her  power  to  make  him  a  great  preacher. 
The  Lord  gave  her  two.  One  of  my  deacons  used  to  send 
for  me  when  a  new  baby  was  born,  to  pray  for  it.  Oliver 
Wendell  Holmes  says  a  child's  education  should  commence 
with  his  grandmother.  Paul  tells  us  that  this  was  so  with 
Timothy.  The  Mosaic  law  required  every  male  to  appear 
before  the  Lord  at  the  central  place  of  worship  three  times 
a  year.  The  text  says  that  Elkanah  went  up  yearly,  but 
does  not  state  how  many  times  a  year.  The  inference  is 
fairly  drawn  that  he  strictly  kept  the  Mosaic  law. 

Samuel  had  certain  duties  in  the  Tabernacle.    He  slept 


16  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

in  the  Lord's  house  and  tended  to  the  lights.  It  is  a,  great 
pity  when  a  child  of  darkness  attends  to  the  lights  in  God's 
house. 

I  heard  a  preacher  say  to  a  sexton,  "How  is  it  that  you 
ring  the  bell  to  call  others  to  heaven  and  you,  yourself, 
seem  going  right  down  to  hell?"  And  that  same  preacher 
said  to  a  surveyor,  "You  survey  land  for  other  people  to 
have  a  home,  and  have  no  home  yourself."  So  some  preach- 
ers point  out  the  boundaries  of  the  home  in  heaven  and 
make  their  own  bed  in  hell. 

Samuel's  call  from  God,  his  first  prophecy,  and  his  rec- 
ognition by  the  people  as  a  prophet  are  facts  of  great  in- 
terest, and  the  lesson  from  his  own  failure  to  at  once  rec- 
ognize the  call  is  of  great  value.  In  the  night  he  heard  a 
voice  saying,  "Samuel!  Samuel!"  He  thought  it  was  Eli, 
and  he  went  to  Eli  and  said,  "Here  I  am.  You  called  me." 
"No,  I  didn't  call  you,  my  son ;  go  back  to  bed."  The  voice 
came  again,  "Samuel,  Samuel,"  and  he  got  up  and  went  to 
Eli  and  said,  "You  did  call  me.  What  do  you  want  with 
me?"  "No,  my  son,  I  did  not  call  you;  go  back  and  lie 
down,"  and  the  third  time  the  voice  came,  "Samuel, 
Samuel,"  and  he  went  again  to  Eli.  Then  Eli  knew  that  it 
was  God  who  called  him,  and  he  said,  "My  son,  it  is  the 
Lord.  You  go  back  and  when  the  voice  comes  again,  say. 
Speak,  Lord;  for  thy  servant  heareth,"  and  so  God  spoke 
and  the  first  burden  of  prophecy  that  He  put  upon  the  boy's 
heart  was  to  tell  the  doom  of  the  house  of  Eli.  Very  soon 
after  that  all  Israel  recognized  Samuel  as  a  prophet  of  God. 

The  value  of  the  lesson  is  this:  We  don't  always  recog- 
nize the  divine  touch  at  first.  Many  a  man  under  convic- 
tion does  not  at  first  understand  its  source  and  nature. 
Others,  even  after  they  are  converted,  are  not  sure  they  are 
converted.  It  is  like  the  mover's  chickens  that,  after  their 
legs  were  untied,  would  lie  still,  not  realizing  that  they  were 
free.    The  ligatures  around  their  legs  had  cut  oflf  the  circu- 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  17 

lation,  and  they  felt  as  if  they  were  tied  after  they  were 
loose.  There  is  always  an  interval  between  an  event  and 
the  cognition  of  it.  For  example,  when  a  shot  is  fired  it 
, precedes  our  recognition  of  it  by  either  the  sight  of  smoke 
or  the  sound  of  the  explosion,  for  it  takes  both  sound  and 
sight  some  time  to  travel  over  the  intervening  space.  I 
heard  Major  Penn  say  that  the  worst  puzzle  in  his  life  was 
the  experiences  whereby  God  called  him  to  quit  his  law 
work  and  become  an  evangelist.  He  didn't  understand  it. 
It  was  like  Samuel  going  to  Eli. 

I  now  will  give  an  analysis  of  that  gem  of  Hebrew  poetry, 
Hannah's  song,  showing  its  conception  of  God,  and  the 
reason  of  its  imitation  in  the  New  Testament.  The  idea 
of  Hannah's  conception  of  God  thus  appears: 

There  is  none  besides  God;  He  stands  alone.  There  is 
none  holy  but  God.  There  is  none  that  abaseth  the  proud 
and  exalteth  the  lowly,  feedeth  the  hungry,  and  maketh  the 
full  hungry,  except  God;  and  there  is  none  but  God  that 
killeth  and  maketh  alive.  There  is  none  but  God  who  estab- 
lisheth  this  earth;  none  but  God  who  keepeth  the  feet  of 
His  saints ;  none  but  God  that  has  true  strength ;  none  but 
God  that  judgeth  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  the  chief  ex- 
cellency of  it  is  the  last :  "He  shall  give  strength  unto  His 
king  and  exalt  the  horn  of  His  Anointed."  That  is  the  first 
place  in  the  Bible  where  the  kingly  office  is  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  name  "Anointed."  The  name, 
"Anointed,"  means  Christ,  the  Messiah. 

It  is  true  that  it  was  prophesied  to  Abraham  that  kings 
should  be  his  descendants.  It  is  true  that  Moses  made 
provision  for  a  king.  It  is  true  that  in  the  book  of  Judges 
anointing  is  shown  to  be  the  method  of  setting  apart  to 
kingly  office,  but  this  is  the  first  place  in  the  Bible  where 
the  one  anointed  gets  the  name  of  the  "Anointed  One,"  a 
king.  Because  of  this  Messianic  characteristic,  Mary,  when 
it  was  announced  to  her  that  she  should  be  the  mother  of 


18  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

the  Anointed  King,  pours  out  her  soul  in  the  Magnificat, 
imitating  Hannah's  song. 

The  state  of  rehgion  at  this  time  was  very  low.  We  see 
from  the  closing  of  the  book  of  Judges  that  at  the  feast  of 
Shiloh  they  had  irreligious  dances.  We  see  from  the  text 
here  that  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  the  priests  of  religion, 
were  not  only  as  corrupt  as  anybody,  but  leaders  in  cor- 
ruption. We  see  it  declared  that  there  is  no  open  vision, 
and  it  is  further  declared  that  the  Word  of  God  was  pre- 
cious— rare. 

I  will  now  explain  these  two  phrases  in  the  texts,  I  Sam. 
I :  i6  (A.  v.),  where  Hannah  says,  "Count  not  thine  hand- 
maid for  a  daughter  of  Belial,"  and  in  2:  12  (A.  V.),  where 
Hophni  and  Phinehas  are  said  to  be  the  ''sons  of  Belial." 
The  common  version  makes  Belial  a  proper  name;  the 
revised  version  does  not,  and  the  revised  version  is  at  fault, 
n  you  will  turn  to  H  Cor.  6: 15,  you  will  see  that  Belial  is 
shown  to  be  the  name  of  Satan :  "What  concord  hath  Christ 
with  Behal?"  Get  Milton's  "Paradise  Lost,"  First  Book, 
and  read  the  reference  to  Hophni  and  Phinehas  as  sons  of 
Belial,  and  see  that  he  correctly  makes  it  a  proper  name. 

Samuel  was  not  a  descendant  of  Aaron.  He  was  merely 
a  Levite,  but  he  subsequently,  as  we  shall  learn,  officiated 
in  sacrifices  as  if  he  were  a  priest  or  high  priest.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  priesthood  was  under  the  curse 
pronounced  on  Eli,  and  Samuel  was  a  special  exceptional 
appointee  of  God,  as  Moses  was. 

Dr.  Burleson,  a  great  Texas  preacher,  and  president  of 
Baylor  University,  preached  all  over  Texas  a  sermon  on 
family  government,  taking  his  text  from  I  Sam.  2:31. 

There  are  some  passages  and  quotations  from  Geikie's 
"Hours  With  the  Bible"  on  the  evils  of  a  plurality  of  wives 
that  are  pertinent.  Commenting  on  Elkanah's  double  mar- 
riage he  says,  "But,  as  might  have  been  expected,  this  double 
marriage — a  thing  even  then  uncommon — did  not  add  to 


EARLY  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  19 

his  happiness,  for  even  among  the  Orientals  the  misery  of 
polygamy  is  proverbial.  'From  what  I  know/  says  one, 
'it  is  easier  to  live  with  two  tigeresses  than  with  two  wives.' 
And  a  Persian  poet  is  of  well-nigh  the  same  opinion: — 

"'Be  that  man's  life  immersed  in  gloom 
Who  needs  more  wives  than  one  : 
With  one  his  cheeks  retain  their  bloom, 
His  voice  a  cheerful  tone  : 
These  speak  his  honest  heart  at  rest, 
And  he  and  she  are  always  blest. 
But  when  with  two  he  seeks  for  joy, 
Together  they  his  soul  annoy ; 
With  two  no  sunbeam  of  delight 
Can  make  his  day  of  misery  bright.' 

"An  old  Eastern  Drama  is  no  less  explicit: — 

"'Wretch!  would'st  thou  have  another  wedded  slave? 
Another?    What?    Another?    At  thy  peril 
Presume  to  try  the  experiment :  would'st  thou  not 
For  that  unconscionable,  foul  desire 
Be  linked  to  misery?    Sleepless  nights,  and  days 
Of  endless  torment — still  recurring  sorrow 
Would  be  thy  lot.    Two  wives  !    O  never  !    Never ! 
Thou  hast  not  power  to  please  two  rival  queens ; 
Their  tempers  would  destroy  thee  ;  sear  thy  brain ; 
Thou  canst  not,  Sultan,  manage  more  than  one. 
Even  one  may  be  beyond  thy  government !' " 


QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  omit  Part  I  of  the  text-book? 

2.  What,  in  bulk,  is  the  supplemental  matter  in  Chronicles,  and 
what  its  importance? 

3.  What  and  where  the  place  of  Samuel's  birth,  residence  and 
burial  ? 

4.  What  his  ancestry  and  tribe  ? 

5.  If  he  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  why  then  is  he  called  an 
Ephraimite,  or  Ephrathite,  which  in  this  place  is  equivalent? 

6.  Show  that  the  bigamy  of  Samuel's  father  produced  the  usual 
bitter  fruit. 

7.  What  was  the  attitude  of  the  Mosaic  law  toward  a  plurality  of 
wives,  and  divorce,  and  why? 

8.  Why  did  the  lav/  ever  permit  these  things  ? 

9.  What  is  the  bearing  of  this  section  on  the  contention  of  the 
radical  critics  that  the  Levitical  part  of  the  Mosaic  law  was  not 
written  by  Moses,  but  by  a  priest  in  Ezekiel's  time,  and  that  Israel 
had  no  central  place  of  worship  in  the  period  of  the  Judges? 


W  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

10.  When  did  Shiloh  become  the  central  place  of  worship,  how  long 
did  it  so  remain,  and  what  use  did  Jeremiah  make  of  its  desolation? 

11.  Trace  the  subsequent  and  separate  history  of  the  Ark  and  the 
Tabernacle,  and  show  when  and  where  another  permanent  central 
place  and  house  of  worship  were  established. 

12.  Who  was  high  priest  at  Samuel's  birth,  how  was  he  descended 
from  Aaron,  and  what  the  proof  that  he  also  judged  Israel? 

13.  With  which  of  the  judges  named  in  the  book  of  Judges  was  he 
likely  a  contemporary  ? 

14.  What  was  Eli's  character,  sin,  doom,  sign  of  the  doom,  and 
who  announced  it  to  him? 

15.  What  nation  at  this  time  dominated  Israel  ? 

16.  Give  a  brief  and  clear  account  of  these  people. 

17.  Show  how  Samuel  was  a  child  of  prayer,  the  subject  of  a  vow, 
a  Nazarite,  how  consecrated  to  service,  and  the  lessons  therefrom. 

18.  How  often  did  the  Mosaic  law  require  every  male  to  appear 
before  the  Lord  at  the  central  place  of  worship,  and  to  what  extent 
was  this  law  fulfilled  by  Samuel's  father  and  mother? 

19.  What  were  the  duties  of  the  child  Samuel  in  the  Tabernacle? 

20.  Give  an  account  of  Samuel's  call  from  God,  his  first  prophecy, 
his  recognition  by  the  people  as  a  prophet,  and  the  lesson  from  his  own 
failure,  for  a  while,  to  recognize  the  call. 

21.  Analyze  that  gem  of  Hebrew  poetry,  Hannah's  song,  showing 
its  conception  of  God,  and  give  the  reason  of  its  imitation  in  the  New 
Testament. 

22.  What  was  the  state  of  religion  at  this  time? 

23.  Explain  the  references  to  Belial  in  I  Sam.  i :  16  and  2 :  12. 

24.  As  Samuel  was  not  a  descendant  of  Aaron,  but  merely  a  Levite, 
why  does  he  subsequently,  as  we  shall  learn,  officiate  in  sacrifices  as 
if  he  were  a  priest  or  high  priest  ? 

25.  What  great  Texas  preacher  preached  all  over  Texas  a  sermon 
on  family  government,  taking  his  text  from  I  Sam.  2:31  ? 

26.  Cite  the  passages  and  quotations  from  "Geikie's  Hours  with 
the  Bible"  on  the  evils  of  a  plurality  of  wives. 


Ill 


THE  FALL  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  ELI,  AND  THE 
RISE  OF  SAMUEL 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  66-69 

1WILL  give,  in  order,  the  passages  showing  the  rise  of 
Samuel  over  against  the  descent  of  Eli.  Samuel,  more 
than  any  other  book  of  the  Bible,  excels  in  vividness 
of  detail,  and  especially  in  showing  progressiveness  in  char- 
acter, either  upward  or  downward — either  growing  better 
or  worse.  Over  against  the  iniquities  of  Eli's  sons  and  the 
doom  pronounced  on  his  house,  we  have  in  order,  these 
passages :  I  Sam.  i :  27,  28 ;  2 :  18,  and  the  last  clause  of 
verse  21 ;  2 :  26 ;  3:1-4;  also  19-21 ;  and  4:1. 

The  progress  is:  (i)  For  this  child  I  prayed.  (2)  The 
child  prayed  for  is  devoted  to  Jehovah.  (3)  His  home  is 
God's  house  and  there  he  serves  and  worships.  (4)  The 
child  is  called.  (5)  The  child  grew  in  favor  with  God  and 
man.  (6)  The  child  kept  on  growing.  (7)  He  is  recog- 
nized as  a  prophet  by  all  Israel  from  Dan  to  Beersheba. 
In  the  meantime  Eli's  house  steadily  descends  until  the 
bottom  is  reached. 

Macaulay,  in  his  "History  of  England,"  in  telling  about 
the  great  men  in  power  at  a  certain  time,  including  Lord 
Halifax,  substantially  makes  this  remark:  "These  great 
men  did  not  know  that  they  were  even  then  being  eclipsed 
by  two  young  men  who  were  rising  up,  that  would  attain 
to  greater  heights  and  influence  than  the  others  had  ever 
attained,"  and  he  gives  the  names  of  the  two  young  men 
as  John  Somers  and  Charles  Montague. 

21 


22  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

You  may  apply  this  throughout  life:  A  train  once  in 
motion  will  run  for  a  while  on  its  own  impetus,  but  in  both 
cases  the  motion  will  gradually  cease  unless  new  power  be 
applied.  So  in  every  community  there  are  leaders  holding 
position  from  past  momentum,  while  new  men  are  rising 
that  will  eclipse  and  succeed  them.  As  in  nature  when  a 
tree  quits  growing  it  begins  to  die,  and  when  a  stream  quits 
flowing  its  waters  stagnate,  so  when  a  leader  quits  studying 
he  begins  to  lose  power  and  must  give  place  to  younger 
men  who  are  studious.  And  it  will  some  day  be  so  with 
you,  and  you  will  enter  what  is  called  the  declining  period 
of  your  Hfe.  For  a  while  it  will  astonish  you  that  you  are 
not  cutting  as  wide  a  swath  as  you  used  to  cut,  and  unless 
you  Hve  only  in  God,  that  will  be  the  bitterest  hour  of  your 
life.  Very  few  people  know  how  to  grow  old  gracefully; 
some  of  them  become  very  bitter  as  they  grow  old. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  events  connected  with 
the  fall  of  the  house  of  Eli : 

I.  An  enemy  is  strengthened  to  smite  them.  The  ab- 
sence of  purity,  piety,  veneration  and  fideHty  in  God's  people 
— either  His  nominal  people  like  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  or 
His  real  people,  as  Eli — always  develops  a  conquering 
enemy.  The  case  of  Samson,  Eli's  contemporaneous  judge, 
illustrates  this.  When  he  betrayed  the  secret  of  his  strength, 
he  went  out  as  aforetime  and  knew  not  that  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  had  departed  from  him,  and  so  became  an  easy 
victim  of  the  Philistines — ^bound,  eyes  put  out,  enslaved, 
grinding  in  the  mills  of  God's  enemies,  a  sport  to  them, 
with  the  added  despair  that  the  cause  suffered  in  his 
downfall. 

The  devil  has  known  from  the  beginning  that  his  only 
chance  to  win  against  God's  people  is,  by  their  sins,  to  turn 
God  against  them.  He  knows  that  as  long  as  God  is  for 
you,  nobody  can  be  against  you.  He  knows  that  he  cannot 
fight  against  you  when  you  have  God  back  of  you,  but  if 


THE  FALL  OF  ELI  23 

you  become  estranged  from  God,  the  devil  will  show  you 
very  quickly  that  when  it  comes  to  a  wrestle  he  can  give 
you  a  fall,  and  it  does  not  take  him  long  to  do  it. 

It  was  in  this  way  that  he  influenced  Balaam  to  suggest 
to  Balak  the  plan  to  make  Israel  sin  with  women,  as  a  step 
toward  idolatry.  His  slogan  was :  "If  you  can  make  them 
sin  against  their  God  and  put  Him  against  them,  then  you 
can  down  them/*  The  Phinehas  of  that  day,  how  different 
from  this  Phinehas,  Eli's  son!  Naming  a  child  after  a 
great  and  good  man  does  not  make  him  like  his  namesake. 
One  of  the  most  unpatriotic  men  I  ever  knew  was  named 
after  George  Washington ;  one  of  the  greatest  failures  as  a 
preacher  was  named  after  Spurgeon;  one  of  the  poorest 
excuses  for  a  statesman  was  named  after  Sam  Houston. 

Now  here  is  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eli,  named  after  that 
other  Phinehas  of  Balaam's  time. 

The  devil,  here  called  Belial,  is  never  better  satisfied  than 
when  he  can  nominate  his  own  children  as  ministers  of 
religion.  Hophni  and  Phinehas,  children  of  Belial,  were 
priests.  The  prevalent  evils  of  today  arise  from  the  fact 
that  children  of  Belial  occupy  many  pulpits  and  many  chairs 
in  theological  seminaries  and  Christian  schools.  Always 
they  are  the  advance  couriers  of  disaster  to  God's  cause, 
and  herald  the  coming  of  a  triumphant  adversary. 

When  prea-chers  and  professors  in  schools  begin  to  hawk 
at  and  peck  at  the  Bible,  and  rend  it  with  their  talons,  or 
defile  the  spiritual  feasts  like  harpies,  you  should  not  only 
count  them  as  unclean  birds  of  prey,  but  should  begin  to  set 
your  own  house  in  order,  for  trouble  is  coming  fast. 

2.  The  Philistines  won  a  battle.  Four  thousand  Israel- 
ites were  slain. 

3.  Stimulated  by  fear,  the  sons  of  Eli  resorted  to  an 
expedient,  tempting  God.  They  sent  for  the  Ark,  taking  it 
from  its  appointed  place  to  be  used  as  a  fetish  or  charm. 
So  used  as  an  instrument  of  superstition  it  had  no  more 


U  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

power  to  avert  evil  than  a  negro's  use  of  a  rabbit's  foot,  or 
the  naiHng  up  of  a  horse  shoe  over  a  door  to  keep  off 
witches. 

As  religion  becomes  decadent  its  votaries  resort  to  charms, 
amulets,  relics  of  the  saints,  alleged  pieces  of  the  Cross, 
images  and  other  kinds  of  evil,  instead  of  resorting  to  re- 
pentance, faith  and  obedience.  So  used,  the  most  sacred 
symbol  becomes  worse  than  any  common  thing. 

We  will  see  later  in  Jewish  history  the  idolatrous  worship 
of  the  brazen  serpent  made  by  Moses,  and  we  will  hear 
good  King  Hezekiah  say,  as  he  breaks  it  to  pieces,  "Ne- 
hushtan,"  i.e.,  "it  is  only  a  piece  of  brass."  As  a  symbol, 
when  lifted  up,  it  was  of  great  use,  but  when  used  as  an 
object  of  worship  it  became  only  a  piece  of  brass.  A  stu- 
dent of  history  knows  that  a  multiplication  of  holy  days, 
pyrotechnic  displays,  games,  festivities,  plays  and  cruel 
sports,  until  there  are  no  days  to  work,  marks  the  decadence 
of  a  people.  You  need  not  be  afraid  of  any  nation  that 
gives  great  attention  to  fireworks — a  characteristic  of  the 
Latin  races. 

We  shout  in  vain :  *The  Ark  of  the  Lord !  The  Ark  of 
the  Lord!"  when  we  fail  to  follow  the  Lord  himself.  No 
issue  is  made  in  that  way,  as  it  is  not  an  issue  of  the  Lord 
against  Dagon,  but  a  superstitious  and  impious  use  of  sacred 
symbols  against  the  devil,  and  the  devil  will  whip  every 
time.  In  the  medieval  times,  early  in  the  history  of  the 
crusades,  you  can  see  that  even  the  Cross  so  used  falls 
before  the  Crescent,  the  sign  of  Mahomet's  followers. 

We  might  as  well  seek  the  remission  of  sins  in  baptism, 
or  salvation  in  the  bread  of  the  Supper,  as  to  expect  God's 
favor  sought  by  any  such  means. 

When  Elisha  smote  the  Jordan  with  Elijah's  mantle,  he 
trusted  not  to  the  mantle,  nor  did  he  say,  "Where  is  Elijah?" 
but  he  said,  "Where  is  the  Lord  God  of  Elijah?"  and  so  he 
divided  the  waters. 


THE  FALL  OF  ELI  25 

3.  The  Philistines  won  another  battle.  Thirty  thousand 
Israelites  perished;  Hophni  and  Phinehas  were  slain;  the 
Ark  was  captured ;  Eli  died,  and  the  wife  of  Phinehas  died 
in  premature  labor,  naming  her  new  born  babe,  "Ichabod," 
that  is,  "The  glory  is  departed  from  Israel;"  Shiloh  was 
captured  and  made  desolate  forever,  ceasing  to  be  the  cen- 
tral place  of  worship;  both  the  Ark  and  the  Tabernacle 
became  fugitives,  separating  never  to  meet  again,  and  so 
Israel  lamented  after  the  Lord. 

4.  The  Philistines  regarded  the  capture  of  the  Ark, 
(i)  as  a  triumph  of  their  god,  Dagon,  over  Jehovah,  the 
God  of  Israel,  and  so  they  placed  it  in  a  subordinate  position 
before  Dagon  in  their  Temple.  (2)  They  regarded  it  as 
the  capture  of  Jehovah  himself,  obHgated  by  His  captivity 
to  now  serve  the  PhiHstines  as  He  had  heretofore  ministered 
to  Israel. 

The  prevalence  of  such  conceptions  in  ancient  times  is 
very  evident.  For  ages  the  presence  of  a  deity  was  asso- 
ciated with  his  symbol.  To  capture  his  symbol,  or  image, 
was  to  capture  the  deity,  as  in  the  story  of  Aladdin  in  "The 
Arabian  Nights,"  whoever  held  the  lamp  of  the  genie  con- 
trolled the  genie  himself.  Assyrian  sculptures  today  ex- 
hibit the  idols  of  vanished  nations  borne  in  triumphant  pro- 
cession, and  the  parade  is  always  to  show  that  they  have 
triumphed  over  the  gods  of  that  country. 

The  Hebrew  prophets  allude  to  this  custom  frequently. 
The  passages  are  Isa.  46:1,  Jer.  48:7  and  49:3,  Hosea 
10:6  and  Dan.  11:8.  Cyrus,  when  he  captured  Babylon, 
adopted  its  gods,  but  the  Romans  under  Marcellus  brought 
to  adorn  their  own  cities  the  captured  images  and  pictures 
of  the  Greek  gods.  Nebuchadnezzar  carried  away  the 
sacred  symbols  of  Jerusalem  when  he  captured  that  city,  as 
did  Titus  after  our  Lord's  time,  and  you  can  see  in  Rome 
today,  carved  on  the  Arch,  the  seven-branched  Golden  Can- 
dlestick which  Titus  carried  from  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem 


S6  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

in  triumph  to  Rome.  The  Roman  general,  Fabius,  when 
he  captured  the  City  of  Tarentum,  said  to  his  soldiers, 
"Leave  their  gods  here;  their  gods  are  mad  at  them;  so 
let  us  leave  them  with  their  gods  which  they  have  offended," 
and  so  they  left  the  idols.  It  would  have  been  a  good  thing, 
as  after-events  show,  had  Nebuchadnezzar  done  the  same 
thing,  for  when  Belshazzar,  his  successor,  on  a  certain  night 
at  a  drunken  feast,  used  the  sacred  vessels  of  the  temple 
for  desecration,  it  was  then  that  the  hand  came  out  and 
wrote  on  the  wall,  *'Mene,  Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin." 

Jehovah  showed  the  Philistines  that  their  victory  was  not 
over  Him.  (i)  By  causing  the  image  of  Dagon  to  fall 
down  before  the  Ark,  and  when  they  set  it  up  again,  caused 
it  to  fall  down  again,  and  to  break  its  head  and  arms  off; 
(2)  by  sending  two  great  plagues:  tumors  or  boils,  violent 
and  fatal,  under  which  thousands  died,  and  field  mice  that 
swarmed  so  as  to  destroy  the  great  harvests  of  grain  that 
made  their  land  famous;  (3)  by  causing  the  cessation  of 
the  worship  of  Dagon  in  Ashdod,  for  after  taking  the  falls 
and  breaking  his  head  and  arms  off,  no  man  would  go  in 
and  worship  Dagon. 

A  natural  inquiry  when  an  individual  or  a  people  is  sub- 
ject to  a  series  of  severe  and  extraordinary  disasters  is, 
What  sin  have  we  committed  and  how  may  we  expiate  it, 
or  avert  its  judgment?  Such  an  inquiry  is  inseparably 
connected  with  any  conception  of  the  moral  government  of 
God.  Men  may  indeed  often  fail  to  note  that  all  afflictions 
are  not  punitive,  some  being  disciplinary,  or  preparatory  to 
greater  displays  of  mercy.  You  see  this  problem  discussed 
in  the  case  of  Job  and  his  friends;  also  to  those  who  asked 
Jesus,  "Who  did  sin,  this  man  or  his  parents?"  He  an- 
swered that  this  affliction  did  not  result  from  personal  sin 
of  either  of  them,  but  that  the  glory  of  God  might  be  mani- 
fested. It  is  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  any- 
body who  has  suffered  one  buffet  of  ill  fortune  after  an- 


THE  FALL  OF  ELI  n 

other,  to  ask,  "What  have  I  done?"  and  it  is  perfectly  nat- 
ural for  the  neighbors  to  point  out  that  one  and  say,  "Ah, 
you  have  been  doing  something  against  the  Lord:  your  sin 
is  finding  you  out."  Therefore  it  was  the  most  natural 
thing  in  the  world  for  the  Philistines,  when  they  saw  such 
disasters  coming  in  connection  with  the  capture  of  the  Ark, 
to  put  the  question,  "What  is  our  sin?" 

We  will  see  what  expedients  the  Philistines  adopted  to 
determine  whether  their  calamities  came  only  in  a  natural 
way,  or  were  supernatural  afflictions  connected  with  the 
Ark  and  coming  from  the  offended  Jehovah,  and  if  from 
Jehovah,  how  He  was  to  be  appeased.  I  Sam.  5  : 7-1 1  gives 
us  the  first  expedient:  "We  will  move  this  Ark  from 
Ashdod  to  the  next  one  of  the  five  cities,  and  see  what 
happens  then.  If  the  same  things  happen  there,  we  will 
move  it  to  the  next  city,  and  if  the  same  things  happen 
there  we  will  move  it  to  the  next  city,  and  so  on  around 
the  circle  of  the  five  cities,  and  if  the  same  results  follow 
all  of  these  cities,  such  a  series  of  incidents  will  be  regarded 
as  full  proof  that  the  judgments  are  from  Jehovah." 

You  will  recall  the  story  of  the  boy  and  the  cow  bells. 
He  said,  "When  my  father  found  a  cow  bell,  Ma  and  I 
were  mighty  glad,  for  we  needed  one.  And  when  he  found 
another  cow  bell  we  were  glad  again,  for  we  really  needed 
another  one,  but  when  Dad  found  another  cow  bell.  Ma 
and  I  became  suspicious."  A  man  would  not  naturally 
find  three  cow  bells  one  after  another,  so  they  thought  that 
"Dad"  had  stolen  them.  So  when  five  cities,  one  after  the 
other,  had  the  same  afflictions,  they  could  not  call  that 
chance. 

I  knew  of  a  general  in  a  terrible  battle  who,  when  a 
bomb-shell  as  big  as  a  water  bucket  came  from  a  gunboat, 
cut  through  a  tree  and  sank  into  the  ground,  making  an 
excavation  that  you  could  put  a  house  in,  ran  and  put  his 
head  right  into  the  hole  where  the  shell  came.     Somebody 


28  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

asked  him  why,  and  he  said  that  such  a  shell  as  that  would 
never  come  twice  in  the  same  place.  And  so  the  Philistine 
idea  was  to  move  the  Ark  from  Ashdod  to  the  next  city, 
and  if  nothing  happened,  then  they  were  mistaken  about 
this  being  chastisement  from  Jehovah,  but  if  wherever  they 
took  it  there  came  the  mice  and  boils  on  the  inhabitants, 
they  were  not  mistaken,  and  they  could  not  misunderstand. 

That  was  their  first  expedient.  Their  second  expedient 
was  to  call  upon  their  religious  leaders,  their  diviners  and 
soothsayers,  and  to  ask  them  to  tell  them  how  they  could 
conciliate  Jehovah.  And  the  diviners  told  them  that  the 
Ark  must  be  sent  back,  and  it  must  be  sent  back  with  a 
gift,  and  the  gift  must  signify  their  confession  of  sin.  In 
the  olden  times  if  a  man  was  healed  of  a  wound  in  his  hand, 
the  Lord  was  presented  with  a  silver  offering  to  commemo- 
rate the  healing  of  the  hand.  So  they  had  five  golden  mice 
made,  one  for  each  city,  and  five  golden  tumors,  one  for 
each  city,  to  symbolize  their  conception  that  the  evils  had 
come  upon  them  for  this  offence  to  Jehovah.  But  as  there 
still  might  be  a  question  as  to  whether  these  afflictions  were 
natural  or  supernatural,  they  tested  it  in  this  way:  They 
went  to  the  pen  where  were  cows  with  young  calves  (you 
know  what  a  fool  a  cow  is  over  her  first  calf  when  it  is  little) 
and  hitched  two  of  these  cows  to  a  cart,  put  the  Ark  on  it, 
to  see  if  the  cows,  against  nature,  would  go  away  and 
leave  their  calves  willingly,  and  still  thinking  about  the 
calves  and  calling  them,  would  carry  the  Ark  back  to  some 
city  of  the  Levites ;  that  would  show  that  Jehovah  was  in  it. 

That  was  a  pretty  wise  idea  of  those  Philistines,  and  so 
when  they  took  a  new  cart  and  put  the  Ark  on  it,  and  took 
those  two  mother  cows,  they  never  hesitated  but  struck  a 
bee-line  for  the  nearest  Levite  city,  about  twelve  miles,  and 
they  went  bellowing,  showing  that  they  felt  the  absence 
from  their  calves.     These  were  their  two  expedients. 

I  Sam.  6 :  19,  20  says  that  some  of  the  people  at  Beth- 


THE  FALL  OF  ELI  29 

shemesh  looked  into  the  Ark  to  see  what  was  in  there,  and 
the  blow  fell  in  a  minute.  No  man  was  authorized  to  open 
that  sacred  chamber  over  which  the  Mercy-seat  rested  and 
on  which  the  cherubs  sat,  but  the  high  priests  of  God.  If 
you  will  turn  to  the  Septuagint,  you  will  find  another 
remarkable  thing  which  does  not  appear  in  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  viz. :  all  of  the  Levites  of  the  city  of  Beth-shemesh 
rejoiced  at  the  return  of  the  Ark  of  God,  except  one  man, 
Jeconiah,  and  his  family,  who  refused  to  rejoice  at  its  home- 
coming, and  God  smote  that  family  in  a  moment. 

Now,  a  later  instance:  When  the  Ark,  at  the  request  of 
the  citizens  of  Beth-shemesh,  was  moved  to  Kirjath-jearim, 
and  stayed  there  until  David  had  been  reigning  a  long  time, 
he  sent  after  it,  and  when  Uzzah,  when  the  Ark  was  shaken 
by  the  oxen  stumbling,  reached  up  his  hand  to  steady  the 
Ark,  God  struck  him  dead.  His  attempt  was  well-meant, 
but  it  presumed  that  God  was  not  able  to  take  care  of  him- 
self. It  was  a  violation  of  the  law  for  any  man  to  touch  that 
Ark  except  the  ones  appointed  by  Jehovah.  Which  one  of 
the  Psalms  commemorates  the  capture  and  restoration  of 
the  Ark? 

After  twenty  years  Samuel  led  Israel  to  repentance  and 
victory.  I  Sam.  7:3-12  tells  us  all  about  it.  It  says  that 
Samuel  called  upon  them  to  truly  repent  of  their  sins;  if 
they  ever  wanted  the  favor  of  God  any  more,  to  cast  off 
their  idols  and  obey  God.  This  is  like  John  the  Baptist 
saying,  "Repent  ye,  repent  ye."  Every  prophet,  in  order 
to  be  a  reformer,  w^as  a  preacher  of  repentance.  The  people 
repented  of  their  sins,  turned  from  their  idols,  and  returned 
to  God.  He  assembled  all  Israel  at  Mizpah ;  the  Philistines 
heard  of  it  and  came  with  a  great  army.  Samuel  and  Israel 
met  them  and  smote  them  hip  and  thigh,  and  broke  their 
power. 

The  next  paragraph  in  the  Harmony  tells  how  Samuel 
judged  Israel,  and  the  regular  circuit  he  made  while  living 


80  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

at  Ramah.  He  would  go  to  Beth-el,  Gilgal,  and  Mizpah, 
then  come  back,  holding  special  courts  of  judgment,  and 
with  such  wisdom,  purity  and  impartiality  that  he  must  be 
classed  as  the  last,  best  and  greatest  of  the  judges. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Cite,  in  order,  the  passages  showing  Samuel's  rise  over  against 
the  descent  of  Eli. 

2.  What  said  Macaulay  on  this  point,  and  what  other  examples 
cited  by  the  author? 

3.  Give  a  summary  of  the  events  connected  with  the  fall  of  the 
house  of  Eli. 

4.  How  did  the  Philistin>  s  regard  the  capture  of  the  Ark? 

5.  Show  the  prevalence  of  such  conceptions  in  ancient  times. 

6.  How  did  Jehovah  show  the  Philistines  that  their  victory  was  not 
over  him? 

7.  What  is  the  natural  inquiry  when  an  individual  or  a  people  is 
subject  to  a  series  of  severe  and  extraordinary  disasters? 

8.  To  what  expedients  did  the  Philistines  resort  to  determine 
whether  their  calamities  came  only  in  a  natural  way,  or  were  super- 
natural afflictions  connected  with  the  Ark  and  coming  from  the 
offended  Jehovah,  and  if  from  Jehovah,  how  was  He  to  be  appeased? 

9.  How  else  did  Jehovah  manifest  the  sanctity  of  His  Ark,  both 
at  Beth-shemesh  and  later,  as  we  will  find  in  the  history? 

10.  What  Psalm  commemorates  the  capture  and  restoration  of  the 
Ark? 

11.  ^  How  does  Samuel  lead  Israel,  after  twenty  years,  to  repentance 
and  victory? 

12.  What  cities  did  Samuel  visit  in  his  judgeship,  and  what  can  you 
say  of  the  judgments  rendered  by  him? 


IV 

THE  SCHOOLS  OF  THE  PROPHETS 

Scrip tur&s:  All  References 

THE  more  important  passages  bearing  on  this  subject 
are  I  Sam.  3:1-4;  10:5,  9-12;  19:18-24.  I  Kings 
18: 13 ;  19 :  18,  20,  21 ;  20: 35 ;  H  Kings  2 : 3-5  ;  4: 38; 
6:1;  I  Chron.  29:29;  H  Chron.  9:29;  12:15;  13:22  and 
other  chapters  in  that  book  I  do  not  enumerate.  The  last 
one  is  Amos  7:  14,  15.  The  reader  will  understand  that  I 
give  these  instead  of  a  prescribed  section  in  the  Harmony. 
These  constitute  the  basis  of  this  discussion. 

Let  us  distinguish  between  the  prophetic  gift  and  the  pro- 
phetic office,  and  give  some  examples.  Enoch,  Noah,  Abra- 
ham, Jacob,  Joseph,  Moses,  his  70  elders,  Balaam,  Joshua, 
and  others  before  Samuel's  time  had  the  gift,  but  not  the 
office ;  perhaps  ve  may  except  Moses  as  in  a  measure  having 
the  office.  After  Samuel's  time,  David,  many  of  his  singers, 
and  particularly  Daniel,  had  the  gift  in  a  high  degree,  but 
not  the  office.  Moreover,  the  high  priests  from  Aaron  to 
Caiaphas  in  Christ's  time,  were  supposed  to  have  officially 
the  gift  of  prophecy — that  is,  to  hear  and  report  what  the 
Oracle  said — but  Samuel  is  the  first  who  held  the  office. 

The  distinction  between  a  prophet  and  a  son  of  a  prophet 
is  this :  A  son  of  a  prophet  was  a  candidate  for  the  office, 
ministering  to  the  prophet,  a  disciple  instructed  by  him,  con- 
secrated to  the  work,  and  qualifying  himself  to  perform  the 
services  of  the  office  with  the  highest  efficiency.  A  prophet 
is  one  who,  through  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  speaks 
or  writes  for  God.     In  this  inspiration  he  is  God's  mouth 

31 


82  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

or  pen,  speaking  or  writing  not  his  own  words,  bat  God's 
words.  This  inspiration  guides  and  superintends  his  speech 
and  his  silence ;  what  is  recorded  and  what  is  omitted  from 
the  record.  The  gift  of  prophecy  was  not  one  of  uniform 
quantity,  nor  necessarily  enduring.  The  gifts  were  various 
in  kind,  and  might  be  for  one  occasion  only.  As  to  variety 
of  kinds,  the  revelation  might  come  in  dreams  or  open 
visions,  or  it  might  consist  of  an  ecstatic  trance  expressed 
in  praise  or  song  or  prayer.  If  praise,  song  or  prayer,  its 
form  was  apt  to  be  poetic,  particularly  if  accompanied  by 
instrumental  music. 

As  to  the  duration  of  the  gift,  it  might  be  for  one  occasion 
only,  or  a  few,  or  many.  The  Scriptures  show  that  the 
spirit  of  prophecy  came  upon  King  Saul  twice  only,  and 
each  time  in  the  form  of  an  ecstatic  trance.  In  his  early 
life  it  came  as  a  sign  that  God  had  chosen  him  as  king.  In 
his  later  life  the  object  of  it  was  to  bar  his  harmful  approach 
to  David.  Paul,  in  I  Cor.  12  and  14  inclusive,  explains  the 
diversity  of  these  gifts  and  their  relative  importance. 

There  are  two  periods  of  Hebrew  history  in  which  we 
find  clearest  notices  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets,  the  proofs 
of  their  persistence  between  the  periods,  and  their  influence 
on  the  nation.  The  notices  are  abundant  in  the  time  of 
Samuel,  and  in  the  time  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  but  you  have 
only  to  study  the  book  of  Chronicles  to  see  that  the  pro- 
phetic order,  as  an  office,  continued  through  these  periods 
and  far  beyond.  Later  you  will  learn  that  in  the  time  of 
persecution  fifty  of  these  prophets  were  hidden  in  a  cave 
and  fed  regularly.  The  object  of  the  enemy  was  to  destroy 
these  theological  seminaries,  believing  that  they  could  never 
lead  the  nation  astray  while  these  schools  of  the  prophets 
continued.  Their  object,  therefore,  was  to  destroy  these 
seats  of  theological  education.  Elijah  supposed  that  every 
one  of  them  was  killed  except  himself,  but  he  was  mistaken. 

Samuel  was  the  founder  of  the  first  school  of  the  prophets, 


SCHOOLS  OF  THE  PROPHETS  33 

and  the  Scripture  which  shows  his  headship  is  I  Sam.  19 :  20, 
where  Saul  is  sending  messengers  to  take  David,  and  finally 
goes  himself  and  finds  the  school  of  the  prophets,  with 
Samuel  as  its  appointed  head.  The  reason  for  such  a  school 
in  Samuel's  time  is  shown,  first,  by  an  extract  from  "Kirk- 
patrick's  Commentary"  on  I  Sam.,  page  33.    He  says : 

"Samuel  was  the  founder  of  the  prophetic  order.  Indi- 
viduals in  previous  ages  had  been  endowed  with  prophetic 
gifts,  but  with  Samuel  commenced  the  regular  succession 
of  prophets  which  lasted  all  through  all  the  period  of  the 
monarchy,  and  did  not  cease  until  after  the  captivity.  The 
degeneracy  into  which  the  priesthood  had  fallen  through 
the  period  of  the  judges  demanded  the  establishment  of  a 
new  order  for  the  religious  training  of  the  nation. 

"For  this  purpose  Samuel  founded  the  institutions  known 
as  the  schools  of  the  prophets.  The  ^company  of  prophets' 
at  Gibeah  (I  Sam.  10:  10)  and  the  scene  at  Ramah  described 
in  I  Sam.  19:18  fif.,  imply  a  regular  organization.  These 
societies  are  only  definitely  mentioned  again  in  connection 
with  the  history  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  but  doubtless  con- 
tinued to  exist  in  the  interval.  By  means  of  these  the  Order 
was  maintained,  students  were  educated,  and  common 
religious  exercises  nurtured  and  developed  spiritual 
gifts." 

Kirkpatrick's  is  a  fine  commentary.  The  priests  indeed 
were  instructors  of  the  people,  but  the  tendency  of  the 
priesthood  was  to  rest  in  external  sacrifices,  and  to  trust  in 
a  mere  ritualistic  form  of  sacrifice.  That  is  the  trouble 
always  where  you  have  a  ritual.  And  after  a  while  both 
priest  and  worshiper  began  to  rely  upon  the  external  type, 
and  on  external  conformity  with  the  ritual.  God  needed 
better  mouthpieces  than  those,  hence  while  in  the  past  there 
was  a  prophetic  gift  here  and  there,  he  now  establishes  the 
prophetic  school,  or  society,  in  which  training,  bearing  upon 
the  prophetic  office,  should  be  continuous.     The  value  of 


S4  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

these  schools  of  the  prophets  is  also  seen  from  Kirkpatrick, 
page  34: 

"The  value  of  the  prophetic  order  to  the  Jewish  nation 
was  immense.  The  prophets  were  privy-counsellors  of 
kings,  the  historians  of  the  nation,  the  instructors  of  the 
people.  It  was  their  function  to  be  preachers  of  righteous- 
ness to  rich  and  poor  alike:  to  condemn  idolatry  in  the 
court,  oppression  among  the  nobles,  injustice  among  the 
judges,  formality  among  the  priests.  They  were  the  inter- 
preters of  the  law,  who  drew  out  by  degrees  the  spiritual 
significance  which  underlay  ritual  observance,  and  labored 
to  prevent  sacrifice  and  Sabbath  and  festival  from  becom- 
ing dead  and  unmeaning  forms.  Strong  in  the  unshaken 
consciousness  that  they  were  expressing  the  divine  will, 
they  spoke  and  acted  with  a  fearless  courage  which  no 
threats  could  daunt  or  silence. 

"Thus  they  proved  a  counterpoise  to  the  despotism  of 
monarchy  and  the  formalism  of  priesthood.  In  a  remark- 
able passage  in  his  essay  on  'Representative  Government,' 
Mr.  John  Stuart  Mill  attributes  to  their  influence  the  prog- 
ress which  distinguished  the  Jews  from  other  Oriental 
nations.  'The  Jews,'  he  writes,  'had  an  absolute  monarchy 
and  hierarchy.  These  did  for  them  what  was  done  for 
other  Oriental  races  by  their  institutions — subdued  them 
to  industry  and  order,  and  gave  them  a  national  life.  .  .  . 
Their  religion  gave  existence  to  an  inestimably  precious 
institution,"  the  order  of  prophets.  Under  the  protection, 
generally  though  not  always  effectual,  of  their  sacred  char- 
acter, the  prophets  were  a  power  in  the  nation,  often  more 
than  a  match  for  kings  and  priests,  and  kept  up  in  that  little 
corner  of  the  earth  the  antagonism  of  influences  which  is 
the  only  real  security  for  continued  progress.' " 

I  was  surprised  the  first  time  I  ever  saw  that  statement 
from  Mill.  He  was  a  radical  evolutionist  and  infidel,  but 
a  statesman,  and  in  studying  the  development  of  statesman- 


SCHOOLS  OF  THE  PROPHETS  36 

ship  among  the  nations,  he  saw  this  singular  thing  in  the 
history  of  the  Jews,  unHke  anything  he  saw  anywhere  else, 
and  saw  what  it  was  that  led  that  nation,  when  it  went  into 
backsliding,  to  repentance ;  what  power  it  was  that  brought 
about  the  reformation  when  their  morals  were  corrupted; 
what  power  it  was  that  was  the  real  light  of  the  nation  and 
the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  saw  that  it  was  this  order  of 
prophets  which  was  the  conservator  of  national  unity,  purity 
and  perpetuity.  I  have  the  more  pleasure  in  quoting  that 
passage,  as  it  comes  from  a  witness  in  no  way  friendly  to 
Christianity,  just  as  when  I  was  discussing  missions  I  quoted 
the  testimony  of  Charles  Darwin  to  the  tremendous 
influence  for  good  wrought  by  the  missionaries  of  South 
America. 

Particularly  in  this  case  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets 
we  find  their  value,  by  noting  very  carefully  the  bearing  on 
the  case  under  Samuel.  We  have  already  noticed  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  priesthood  under  Eli,  Hophni  and  Phinehas; 
how  the  Ark  was  captured,  the  central  place  of  worship 
desecrated;  how  Samuel,  called  to  the  office  of  prophet, 
needed  assistance,  and  how  he  instituted  this  school  of  the 
prophets.  He  gathered  around  him  the  brightest  young 
men  of  the  nation  and  had  the  Spirit  of  God  rest  on  them, 
and  in  order  that  their  instruction  might  be  regular  he 
organized  them  into  companies,  or  schools;  he  would  go 
from  one  to  another,  and  these  young  "theologs"  were 
under  the  instruction  of  Samuel  and  for  twenty  years 
worked  as  evangelists  in  making  sensitive  the  national  con- 
science. It  took  twenty  years  to  do  it,  and  he  could  not 
have  done  it  by  himself,  but  with  that  tremendous  power, 
the  help  he  had,  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  he  saw  the 
nation  repentant  and  once  more  worshipping  God.  I  am 
for  a  theological  seminary  that  will  do  that. 

I  give  a  modern  example  somewhat  parallel :  Mr.  Spur- 
geon  was  called  to  the  city  of  London,  when  about  nine- 


36  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

teen  years  old,  to  be  the  pastor  of  the  old  historic  church  of 
Dr.  Gill,  and  in  his  evangelic  preaching  impressed  a  number 
of  men  to  feel  that  they  were  also  called  to  preach  (if  your 
preaching  does  not  impress  somebody  else  to  preach,  you 
may  be  sure  that  you  are  not  called  to  preach),  and  it 
impressed  the  women  and  a  multitude  of  laymen  to  do  active 
Christian  service.  Therefore,  Mr.  Spurgeon  organized  what 
is  called  "The  Pastoral  College."  He  wouldn't  let  a  drone 
be  in  it ;  he  did  not  want  anybody  in  it  that  was  not  spirit- 
ually minded.  In  other  words,  he  insisted  that  a  preacher 
should  be  religiously  inclined,  and  should  be  ready  to  do 
any  kind  of  work..  He  supported  this  institution  largely 
through  his  own  contributions,  although  the  men  and  women 
all  over  England,  when  they  saw  what  it  was  doing,  would 
send  money  for  its  support.  I  used  to  read  the  monthly 
reports  of  the  contributions  and  the  list  of  donors  that 
accompanied  them.  Mr.  Spurgeon  determined  to  work  a 
revolution,  just  as  Samuel  did,  and  he  used  this  school  of 
the  prophets  for  that  purpose.  Consequently,  hundreds  of 
young  preachers  belonging  to  that  school  of  the  prophets 
preached  in  the  slums  of  the  city,  in  the  byways,  in  the  high- 
ways, in  the  hedges,  in  the  mines,  on  the  wharves  to  the 
sailors,  and  in  the  hospitals.  Hundreds  of  laymen  said, 
"Put  us  to  work,"  and  he  did ;  he  had  push-carts  made  for 
them,  and  filled  them  with  books  and  so  sent  out  over  the 
town  literature  that  was  not  poisonous.  He  put  the  women 
to  work,  and  established,  or  rather  perpetuated  in  better 
form,  a  number  of  the  almshouses  for  the  venerable  old 
women  who  were  poor  and  helpless,  following  out  the  sug- 
gestion in  H  Timothy,  and  he  erected  a  hospital.  Then  they 
got  to  going  further  afield.  They  went  all  over  England, 
Wales,  Scotland,  Ireland,  crossed  over  into  the  Continent, 
crossed  the  seas  to  Australia,  and  the  islands  of  the  seas, 
and  into  heathen  lands.  I  have  always  said  that  Spurgeon's 
Pastoral    College    came    nearer   to    the    Bible    idea    of   a 


SCHOOLS  OF  THE  PROPHETS  37 

seminary  than  any  other  in  existence.  There  was  not 
so  much  stress  laid  on  mere  scholarship  as  on  spiritual 
efficiency. 

It  is  important  to  note  particularly  what  I  am  saying 
now,  because  it  was  burnt  into  my  heart  as  one  of  the  rea- 
sons for  establishing  a  theological  seminary.  The  nature  of 
that  society  was  that  it  was  a  school.  They  left  their  homes 
and  came  to  stay  at  this  school,  with  what  we  now  call  a 
mess-hall  in  which  all  the  theological  students,  by  contribut- 
ing so  much,  have  their  table  in  common.  It  was  that  way 
then ;  they  had  their  meals  in  common.  In  preparing  dinner 
one  day  for  the  sons  of  the  prophets,  somebody  put  a  lot  of 
wild  gourds  into  the  pot,  and  when  they  began  tu  eat  it,  one 
of  them  cried  out:  ''Ah,  man  of  God,  there's  death  in  the 
pot!"  Once  I  preached  a  sermon  on  this  theme:  "Wild 
Gourds  and  Theological  Seminaries,"  to  show  that  to  feed 
the  students  in  theological  seminaries  on  wild  gourds  of 
heresy  is  to  put  death  in  the  pot;  they  will  do  more  harm 
than  good,  as  they  will  become  instruments  of  evil. 

In  determining  what  were  their  duties,  we  must  consult 
quite  a  number  of  passages.  We  gather  from  this  passage 
that  they  were  thoroughly  instructed  in  the  necessity  of 
repentance,  individually  and  nationally,  and  of  turning  from 
their  sins  and  coming  back  to  God  with  faithful  obedience. 
That  lesson  was  ground  in  them.  They  were  taught  the 
interpretation  of  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  law,  all  its 
sacrifices,  its  feasts,  its  types,  and  therefore  when  you  are 
studying  a  prophet  in  the  O.  T.  you  will  notice  how  differ- 
ent his  idea  of  types  and  ceremonies  from  that  of  the 
priests.  They  will  tell  you  that  to  do  without  eating  is 
fasting,  but  the  prophet  will  show  that  literal  fasting  is  not 
true  fasting ;  that  there  must  be  fasting  at  heart ;  that  there 
must  be  a  rending  of  the  soul  and  not  the  garment  as  an 
expression  of  repentance;  that  to  obey  God  is  better  than 
a  formal  sacrifice. 


38  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Another  thing  they  were  taught,  which  I  wish  to  particu- 
larly emphasize,  was  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental. 
In  that  school  of  the  prophets  started  the  tremendous  power 
of  music  in  religion  so  wonderfully  developed  by  David, 
who  got  many  of  his  ideas  from  associating  with  the  schools 
of  the  prophets.  And  from  that  time  unto  this,  every 
evangelical  work,  and  all  powerful  religious  work,  has  been 
associated  with  music,  both  in  the  O.  T.  and  in  the  N.  T.  ; 
not  merely  vocal,  but  instrumental  music.  The  heart  of  a 
religion  is  expressed  in  its  songs,  and  if  you  want  to  get  at 
the  heart  of  your  O.  T.  you  find  it  in  the  hymn-book  of  the 
Hebrew  nation — the  Psalter.  It  is  indeed  an  interesting 
study  to  see  what  has  been  the  influence  of  great  hymns 
on  the  national  life.  There  is  an  old  proverb:  "You  may 
make  the  laws  of  the  people,  if  you  will  let  me  write  their 
ballads."  Where  is  there  a  man  capable  of  measuring  the 
influence  of  "How  Firm  a  Foundation,  Ye  Saints  of  the 
Lord,"  or  "Come  Thou  Fount  of  Every  Blessing,"  or  "Did 
Christ  O'er  Sinners  Weep?"  There  is  a  rich  literature  on 
the  influence  of  hymns  on  the  life. 

In  the  awful  times  of  the  struggle  in  England,  Charles  I 
against  the  Parliament,  one  faction  of  the  nation  held  to 
ritualism,  while  the  other  followed  spirituality,  even  to  the 
extreme  of  not  allowing  any  form,  not  even  allowing  any 
instruments  of  music.  One  of  the  finest  stories  of  this 
period  is  the  account  of  a  church  that  observed  the  happy 
medium,  using  instrumental  as  well  as  vocal  music,  and 
congregational  singing  as  well  as  the  use  of  the  choir;  every 
Sabbath  somebody's  soul  was  melted  in  the  power  of  that 
mighty  singing. 

I  can't  sing  myself,  hut  I  can  carry  the  tunes  in  my  mind, 
and  I  can  be  more  influenced  by  singing  than  by  preaching. 
It  was  singing  that  convicted  me  of  sin.  It  was  on  a  waving, 
soaring  melody  of  song  that  my  soul  was  converted. 

I  once  knew  a  rugged,  one-eyed,  homely,  old  pioneer  Bap- 


SCHOOLS  OF  THE  PROPHETS  39 

tist  preacher,  who  looked  like  a  pirate  until  his  religion 
manifested  itself,  and  then  he  was  beautiful.  I  heard  him 
one  day  when  a  telegram  was  put  into  his  hand  stating  that 
his  only  son  had  just  been  killed  by  being  thrown  from  a 
horse.  While  weeping,  his  face  became  illumined;  he  got 
up  and  clapped  his  hands  and  walked  through  that  audience, 
singing,  ''O,  Jesus,  my  Savior,  to  Thee  I  Submit." 

John  Bunyan  wrote  that  song  while  in  Bedford  jail.  They 
had  put  him  there  to  keep  him  from  preaching,  and  looking 
out  through  the  bars  of  the  dungeon  he  saw  his  poor  blind 
girl,  Mary,  begging  bread,  and  he  sat  down  and  wrote  that 
hymn.  The  effect  of  the  old  preacher's  singing  John  Bun- 
yan's  song  was  a  mighty  revival. 

The  relation  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets  to  modern 
theological  seminaries  is  this:  The  purpose  was  the  same. 
And  so  in  N.  T.  times,  Jesus  recognized  that  if  He  wanted 
to  revolutionize  the  world  by  evangelism  He  must  do  it  with 
trained  men.  He  did  not  insist  that  they  be  rich,  great  or 
mighty  men.  He  did  not  insist  that  they  be  scholars.  He 
called  them  from  among  the  common  people,  and  He  kept 
them  right  with  Him  for  three  years  and  a  half,  and  dili- 
gently instructed  them  in  the  principles  and  spirit  of  His 
kingdom.  He  taught  them  in  a  variety  of  forms;  in  par- 
ables, in  proverbs,  in  exposition,  illustrating  His  teachings 
by  miracles,  and  in  hundreds  of  ways  in  order  that  they 
might  be  equipped  to  go  out  and  lead  the  world  to  Christ. 
You  cannot  help  being  impressed  with  this  fact:  That  the 
theological  seminaries  in  Samuel's  time  and  in  Christ's  time 
were  intensely  practical,  the  object  being  not  to  make 
learned  professors,  but  to  fill  each  one  with  electricity  until 
you  could  call  him  a  ''live  wire,"  so  that  it  burnt  whoever 
touched  it. 

This  is  why  I  called  Samuel  a  great  man,  and  why  in  a 
previous  discussion,  counting  the  men  as  the  peaks  in  a 
mountain  range,  sighting  back  from  Samuel  to  Abraham, 


40  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

only  one  other  peak  comes  into  line  of  vision,  and  that  is 
Moses. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  more  important  passages  bearing  on  the  schools  of 
the  prophets? 

2.  Distinguish  between  the  prophetic  gift  and  the  prophetic  office 
and  illustrate  by  examples. 

3.  Distinguish  between  a  prophet  and  a  son  of  a  prophet. 

4.  What  is  the  meaning  of  prophet  ? 

5.  In  what  two  periods  of  Hebrew  history  do  we  find  the  clearest 
notices  of  the  school  of  prophets,  what  the  proofs  of  their  persistence 
between  these  periods,  and  what  their  influence  on  the  nation? 

6.  Who  was  the  founder  of  the  first  school  of  the  prophets? 

7.  What  scripture  shows  his  headship? 

8.  What  was  the  reason  for  such  school  in  Samuel's  time? 

^  9.     What  was  the  value  of  these  schools  of  the  prophets,  and  par- 
ticularly in  this  case,  and  what  illustration  from  modern  instances? 

^  10.     What  was  the  nature  of  that  society,  and  what  was  the  instruc- 
tion given? 

II.  What  the  relation  of  the  schools  of  the  prophets  to  modern 
theological  seminaries? 


SAMUEL  AND  THE  MONARCHY,  AND  HIS 
VINDICATION  AS  JUDGE 

Scriptures:  1  Sam.  8:1-22;  12:1-25,  Harmony 
pp.  70  and  74,  75 

1  LOGICALLY  connect  these  two  chapters  so  as  to  round 
up  Samuel's  judgeship,  and  the  intervening  chapters 
will  be  discussed  later.  The  general  subject  for  this 
discussion  is,  "God  through  Samuel  establishes  the  mon- 
archy, and  Samuel's  vindication  when  he  gives  up  the  posi- 
tion as  judge."  The  general'  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to 
show  the  steps  of  transition  from  a  government  by  judges 
to  a  government  by  kings.  The  immediate  occasion  of  the 
change  was  the  persistent  demand  of  the  people. 

The  grounds  alleged  by  the  people  for  the  change  were, 
(i)  that  Samuel  was  old;  (2)  that  his  sons  whom  he  made 
judges  walked  not  in  his  way,  and  these  allegations  were 
strictly  true.  Samuel  was  old.  He  had  made  his  sons 
judges,  as  Eli  had  done  in  the  case  of  his  sons.  These  sons 
were  unworthy  to  hold  office:  "They  did  not  walk  in 
Samuel's  way,  but  turned  aside  after  lucre,  and  took  bribes, 
and  perverted  judgment."  Samuel  had  no  right  to  make 
judges,  nor  to  appoint  his  successor;  that  was  Jehovah's 
prerogative.  He  had  retained  these  sons  in  office,  though 
unworthy,  and  had  so  far  followed  EH's  example. 

Nepotism  has  always  been  repugnant  to  the  people. 

It  was  a  compliment  to  the  late  Senator  Coke  when  his 
kinsfolk  complained  that  he  had  never  gotten  them  an  office 
on  the  score  of  kindred. 

4.1 


42  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Public  office  is  a  public  trust,  and  not  for  distribution  of 
family  patronage. 

But  their  demand  displeased  Samuel.  He  did  not  dis- 
pute the  facts  alleged,  nor  deny  their  grievance  against  his 
sons,  but  he  objected  to  the  remedy  proposed,  namely: 
"Give  us  a  king  to  judge  us."  It  would  interest  us  to  know 
what  Samuel  would  have  done  if  they  had  merely  demanded 
the  removal  of  his  sons  from  office  and  Samuel's  consent 
to  leave  to  God  the  appointment  of  his  successor.  But  it  is 
a  destructive  remedy  to  burn  a  ship  in  order  to  get  rid  of 
the  rats.  A  change  in  the  form  of  the  government  is  not 
always  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of  unworthy  officials, 
although  the  people  will  always  demand  it  if  from  any 
cause  the  legal  methods  of  removal  are  barred.  The  people 
usually  are  long-suffering,  and  often  know  not  how  to  prac- 
tically get  rid  of  an  evil  by  legal  methods.  Press  them  too 
far,  and  a  revolution  comes — maybe  a  destructive  one. 

Samuel  evinced  his  wisdom  by  carrying  the  case  to  Jeho- 
vah in  prayer;  that  is,  before  he  answered  the  people,  with 
the  following  results : 

1.  Jehovah  shows  that  the  plausible  grounds  alleged  by 
the  people  for  the  change  of  government  disguised  their 
real  motive.  It  is  characteristic  of  fallen  human  nature  to 
veil  a  motive  in  a  plausible  plea;  for  example,  to  defend 
saloons  on  the  plea  of  ''personal  liberty,"  or  that  prohibition 
"injures  business." 

2.  These  people  meant,  by  rejecting  Samuel,  to  reject 
Jehovah.  It  was  the  theocracy  to  which  in  heart  they  ob- 
jected.   They  wanted  kings  like  other  nations. 

3.  Jehovah  directed  Samuel  to  set  before  them  plainly, 
in  protest,  the  manner  of  a  king  such  as  other  nations  had ; 
to  thus  force  them,  if  they  persisted  in  their  demand,  to  do 
so  with  open  eyes  and  with  all  of  their  motives  unmasked. 
This  would  prove  that  though  they  had  a  real  grievance, 
they  were  not  seeking  redress  of  that  grievance,  but  making 


SAMUEL  AND  THE  MONARCHY  43 

it  a  plausible  plea  for  the  dethronement  of  Jehovah,  even 
though  their  remedy  brought  grievances  a  thousand  fold 
worse  than  those  from  which  they  pretended  to  seek  relief. 
The  character  of  an  Oriental  despot  is  given  by  Samuel 
in  his  protest.  Let  us  look  at  that  in  I  Sam.  8:11-17:  "This 
will  be  the  manner  of  the  king  that  shall  reign  over  you :  He 
will  take  your  sons  and  appoint  them  unto  him,  for  his 
chariots,  and  to  be  his  horsemen ;  and  they  shall  run  before 
his  chariots;  and  he  will  appoint  them  unto  him  for  cap- 
tains of  thousands,  and  captains  of  fifties;  and  he  will  set 
some  to  plow  his  ground,  and  to  reap  his  harvest,  and  to 
make  his  instruments  of  war,  and  the  instruments  of  his 
chariots.  And  he  will  take  your  daughters  to  be  confec- 
tionaries,  and  to  be  cooks,  and  to  be  bakers.  And  he  will 
take  your  fields,  and  your  vinyeards,  and  your  olive-yards, 
even  the  best  of  them,  and  give  them  to  his  servants.  And 
he  will  take  the  tenth  of  your  seed,  and  of  your  vineyards, 
and  give  to  his  of^cers,  and  to  his  servants.  And  he  will 
take  your  menservants,  and  your  maidservants,  and  your 
goodliest  young  men,  and  your  asses,  and  put  them  to  his 
work.  He  will  take  a  tenth  of  your  flocks ;  and  ye  shall  be 
his  servants.  And  ye  shall  cry  out  in  that  day  because  of 
your  king  whom  ye  shall  have  chosen  you;  and  the  Lord 
will  not  answer  you  in  that  day."  I  do  not  know  anywhere 
in  Hterature  a  better  picture  of  an  Oriental  despot  than  is 
given  in  the  language  of  Samuel. 

The  results,  after  Samuel  showed  them  what  it  was  to 
have  a  king  like  other  nations,  were  as  follows :  ( i )  With 
their  eyes  open  and  their  motives  exposed,  they  demanded 
a  king  like  other  nations.  (2)  Jehovah  directed  Samuel  to 
make  them  a  king.  ^'Sometimes  God  answers  in  wrath." 
(3)  But  not  to  establish  such  a  monarchy  as  they  desired, 
that  is,  like  other  nations,  but  a  kingdom  under  a  written 
charter  which  retained  the  theocratic  idea,  the  earthly  king 
to  be  only  Jehovah's  appointee  and  vice-gerent,  subject  to 


44  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Jehovah's  Law,  and  guided  in  all  things  by  Jehovah^s 
prophets,  and  at  all  times  liable  to  removal  by  Jehovah.  So 
God  does  not  answer  their  request  altogether.  He  makes  a 
king,  but  not  such  a  king  as  they  wanted.  Concerning  such 
a  ruler  Geikie  uses  the  following  language: 

"Such  a  ruler  would  necessarily  stand  in  a  unique  posi- 
tion. As  only  viceroy  and  representative  of  the  true  invis- 
ible King,  Jehovah,  he  must  be  pointed  out  beforehand  by 
special  indications,  and  consecrated  as  to  a  sacred  office. 
That  he  should,  moreover,  have  commended  himself  to  the 
nation  by  his  qualities  and  deeds,  was  essential.  Nor  could 
it  be  permitted  him  to  reign  like  other  Eastern  kings,  by  his 
mere  pleasure;  for  the  rights  of  Jehovah  and  those  of  his 
people,  as  a  nation  of  freemen,  demanded  equal  respect. 
He  must,  therefore,  at  all  times,  remember  that  he  ruled 
under  a  higher  King,  whose  will,  expressed  in  His  revealed 
law,  was  his  absolute  guide  both  in  religion  and  ordinary 
life;  its  transgression,  in  any  particular,  being  self-destruc- 
tion. But  such  a  man  would  necessarily  be  in  loving  sym- 
pathy with  Him  under  whom  he  held  his  authority,  to  be 
king  after  His  heart ;  a  man  truly  religious ;  obeying,  not  by 
mere  outward  constraint,  but  from  loving  choice. 

'Though  nominally  king,  it  was  a  condition  of  his  rule 
that  he  acted  only  as  the  prophet  instructed  him.  Under  the 
strange  theocratic  constitution  enforced  by  Samuel,  he  was 
in  fact  only  a  puppet,  moved  by  the  prophet  as  he  chose, 
and  forbidden  to  act  in  anything  as  a  free  agent.  The  only 
counterpart  to  such  a  state  of  things  in  modern  times,  was 
the  titular  rule  of  the  Mikado  in  Japan,  side  by  side  with 
the  real  Emperor,  the  Tycoon;  the  one  a  shadow  king,  the 
other  the  actual  sovereign  power.  In  antiquity,  strange  to 
say,  we  find  parallel  to  Saul  and  Samuel  among  the  Getae 
of  the  century  before  Christ.  In  their  wild  home  north  and 
south  of  the  Danube,  that  people  were  ruled  by  a  chief  who 
acted  only  as  the  servant  of  a  holy  man,  without  whom  he 


•   SAMUEL  AND  THE  MONARCHY     45 

was  not  allowed  to  act  in  anything  whatever.  Still  stranger, 
the  result  of  this  extraordinary  custom  was  the  same  as  fol- 
lowed the  rule  of  Samuel  in  Israel.  From  the  lowest  weak- 
ness and  moral  degeneracy  the  Getae  roused  themselves 
under  the  leading  of  the  holy  man  and  the  phantom  king, 
to  a  thorough  and  lasting  reformation.  Indeed,  they  so 
-turned  themselves  to  a  nobler  life  that  their  national  vigor 
showed  itself  in  a  puritanical  strictness  and  steadfast  bra- 
very, which  carried  their  banners  far  and  wide  over  new 
territories,  till  their  kingdom  was  infinitely  extended.  Once 
recognized,  such  a  complete  subordination  to  the  represen- 
tative of  the  theocracy  as  was  demanded  from  Saul  might 
become  more  easy  to  be  borne,  but  in  its  early  years  the 
strong,  valiant  warrior  must  have  been  sorely  tried  by 
finding  himself  king  in  name,  but  in  fact  absolutely  subor- 
dinate in  the  most  minute  detail  to  the  command  of  Samuel." 
Using  the  word,  '"puppet,"  Geikie  is  mistaken,  since  the 
prophet  never  spoke  except  as  God  commanded,  and  for 
a  man  to  rule  under  the  direction  of  God  does  not  make 
him  a  puppet.  This  kind  of  a  kingdom  was  not  repugnant 
to  Jehovah's  plan,  as  set  forth  in  their  previous  history  and 
law,  and  in  their  subsequent  history. 

1.  In  Gen.  17:16,  in  the  covenant  which  God  made 
with  Abraham,  He  promised  that  kings  should  be  his 
descendants. 

2.  In  Dcut.  17:14-20:  ''When  thou  art  come  unto  the 
land  which  Jehovah  thy  God  giveth  thee,  and  shalt  possess 
it,  and  shalt  dwell  therein,  and  shalt  say,  I  will  set  a  king 
over  me,  like  all  the  nations  that  are  around  about  me ; 
thou  shalt  surely  set  him  king  over  thee,  whom  Jehovah 
thy  God  shall  choose :  one  from  among  the  brethren  shalt 
thou  set  king  over  thee ;  thou  mayest  not  put  a  foreigner 
over  thee,  which  is  not  thy  brother.  Only  he  shall  not  mul- 
tiply horses  to  himself,  nor  cause  the  people  to  return  to 
Egypt,  to  the  end  that  he  may  multiply  horses ;  forasmuch 


46  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

as  Jehovah  hath  said  unto  you,  Ye  shall  henceforth  return 
no  more  that  way.  Neither  shall  he  multiply  wives  to  him- 
self, that  his  heart  turn  not  away:  neither  shall  he  greatly 
multiply  to  himself  silver  and  gold.  And  it  shall  be,  when 
he  sitteth  upon  the  throne  of  his  kingdom,  that  he  shall 
write  a  copy  of  this  law  in  a  book,  out  of  that  which  is 
before  the  priests  and  the  Levites :  and  it  shall  be  with  him, 
and  he  shall  read  therein  all  the  days  of  his  life;  that  he 
may  learn  to  fear  Jehovah  his  God,  to  keep  all  the  words 
of  this  law  and  these  statutes,  to  do  them ;  that  his  heart  be 
not  lifted  up  above  his  brethren,  and  that  he  turn  not  aside 
from  the  commandment,  to  the  right  hand,  or  to  the  left ;  to 
the  end  that  he  may  prolong  his  days  in  his  kingdom,  he 
and  his  children,  in  the  midst  of  Israel." 

We  can  tell  whether  kings  of  later  date  did  this,  for  we 
remember  that  Solomon  took  only  seven  hundred  wives, 
besides  three  hundred  concubines.  Every  king,  in  their 
subsequent  history,  who  violated  this  kingdom  charter,  or 
who  refused  to  hear  and  obey  Jehovah's  prophet,  was  pun- 
ished by  Jehovah.  And  to  the  extent  that  when  one  of 
them  respected  this  charter,  he  was  blessed  of  Jehovah,  he 
and  the  people  with  him. 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  the  issue  was  not  whether  the  ruler 
should  be  called  judge  or  king,  but  that  Jehovah  ruled,  what- 
ever the  title  of  His  earthly  subordinate.  The  lesson  is  a 
mighty  one.  Jehovah  is  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords. 
His  law  and  authority  are  paramount  over  nations  as  well 
as  over  individuals.  His  government  extends  over  the  un- 
willing as  well  as  the  wiUing.  To  deny  His  rule  is  not  to 
vacate  responsibility  to  His  judgment.  That  is  was  imma- 
terial whether  the  ruler  was  called  judge  or  king,  is  illus- 
trated by  a  relative  passage  from  Pope's  "Essay  on  Man." 
The  third  epistle  of  that  essay,  line  303,  says: 

"For  forms  of  government  let  fools  contest ; 
Whate'er  is  best  administered  is  best." 


SAMUEL  AND  THE  MONARCHY  47 

It  is  further  evidenced  that  the  people  had  to  see  and 
admit  their  wrong  in  seeking  to  displace  Samuel  as  judge 
in  I  Sam.  12 : 1-25  which  gives  Samuel's  address  and  con- 
tains the  following  points : 

1.  They  had  to  bear  witness  and  have  the  testimony- 
recorded,  to  the  wisdom,  purity,  and  fidelity  of  Samuel's 
administration  when  he  retired  from  the  judgeship. 

2.  They  had  to  admit  that  all  great  leaders  in  the  past 
were  appointed  by  Jehovah,  and  that  they  had  rebelled 
against  every  one  of  them. 

3.  They  had  to  accept  this  alternative,  with  a  king  put 
over  them;  that  is,  if  they  and  their  king  submitted  to 
Jehovah's  rule  according  to  the  kingdom  charter,  then  well ; 
but  if  they  turned  away  from  Him,  then  condign  punish- 
ment came  on  them  as  on  their  rebellious  fathers. 

4.  They  had  still  to  submit  to  Samuel  as  a  prophet. 
The  words  of  Samuel  were  confirmed  by  this  miracle:  He 
called  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  was  harvest  time, 
when  in  ordinary  cases  it  never  rained.  Then  lifting  his 
face,  he  spoke  to  Jehovah  for  a  sign,  and  instantly  the 
heavens  were  blackened,  loud  thunder  rolled,  lightning  gored 
the  black  bosom  of  the  cloud,  and  a  windstorm  came  up 
to  testify  that  God  was  speaking  to  them.  The  result  was 
that  they  felt  and  confessed  the  sin  of  their  demand,  and 
implored  Samuel's  intercession  that  they  might  be  forgiven, 
to  which  he  gave  the  following  in  reply : 

1.  He  encouraged  them  not  to  despair  on  account  of 
their  sins — that  God  was  merciful — ^but  to  repent  and  do 
better  in  the  future. 

2.  That  God,  for  His  own  name's  sake,  would  never  for- 
sake that  people. 

3.  That  he  himself  would  not  sin  by  ceasing  to  pray  for 
them  that  their  sins  should  be  forgiven. 

4.  That  he  would,  as  prophet,  continue  to  instruct  them 
in  the  good  and  right  way. 


48  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

5.  That  in  view  of  the  great  things  that  God  had  done 
for  them,  they  should  fear  Him  and  serve  Him  in  truth 
with  all  their  hearts;  otherwise  they  would  be  consumed. 

With  other  great  events  in  their  history,  chapter  12  may 
be  compared  thus: 

1.  With  the  farewell  address  of  Moses,  Deut.  29:1 — 

31:5; 

2.  Joshua's  farewell  address,  Joshua  24:1-28; 

3.  Paul's  farewell  address  to  the  elders  of  the  church  at 
Ephesus,  Acts  20: 18-38. 

4.  On  the  score  of  patriotism,  we  may  include  Washing- 
ton's farewell  address,  when  he  announced  he  would  no 
more  be  president.  I  once  went  to  the  city  of  Annapolis  to 
see  a  great  picture,  or  painting,  representing  the  scene  of 
Washington  tendering  his  sword  back  to  congress  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  retiring  from  the  office  of  commander-in- 
chief.  It  is  a  marvelous  painting.  Supposed  but  far-distant 
relatives  of  mine  are  in  the  picture — Charles  Carroll  and 
his  daughters.  In  a  glass  case  to  the  right  is  the  very  suit 
of  clothes  Washington  wore  on  that  day,  including  his  spurs. 
My  old  teacher  made  me  memorize  Washington's  farewell 
address. 

Two  great  doctrines  in  Samuel's  address  need  to  be  em- 
phasized : 

1.  The  ground  of  God's  not  forsaking  His  elect  nation: 
"Not  on  your  account,  but  for  His  own  name's  sake,"  and 
in  this  connection  you  must  read  Ezekiel  36 :  22-36,  and 
the  whole  of  Romans  11.  They  both  talk  about  God's 
saving  in  one  day  the  whole  Jewish  nation. 

2.  It  is  a  sin  not  to  pray  for  the  forgiveness  of  sinners, 
of  which  the  following  is  a  Texas  illustration :  There  was 
a  certain  man,  preaching  in  many  counties,  taking  the  posi- 
tion that  no  Christian  was  justifiable  in  praying  for  the 
forgiveness  of  the  sinner.  I  joined  issue  publicly,  in  the 
pulpit  and  in  the  press,  citing  Samuel's  doctrine :  "God  for- 


SAMUEL  AND  THE  MONARCHY  49 

bid  that  I  should  sin  in  ceasing  to  pray  for  the  forgiveness 
of  your  sins."  In  that  great  discussion  I  referred  to  what 
is  called  the  "mourner's  bench,"  stating  that  I  had  no  par- 
ticular fancy  for  what  is  called  the  ''mourner's  bench;" 
that  a  man  could  find  Christ  on  the  bench,  on  the  floor, 
behind  the  barn,  or  in  the  field,  unless  he  made  this  point: 
"I  will  do  anything  that  God  wants  me  to  do  to  be  saved, 
except  a  certain  thing;"  that  if  he  reserved  any  one  point  on 
which  he  would  not  surrender  to  God,  then  he  did  not  sur- 
render at  all ;  and  I  insisted  that  in  leaving  out  the  "mourn- 
er's bench"  they  would  not  leave  out  the  mourning.  I  did 
not  object  to  leaving  out  the  bench  if  they  wanted  to,  but 
if  they  did  leave  it  out,  I  hoped  they  would  not  cease  pray- 
ing for  sinners. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  general  purpose  of  this  chapter? 

2.  What  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  change? 

3.  What  the  grounds  alleged  by  the  people  for  the  change? 

4.  What  can  you  say  of  these  allegations  ? 

5.  Why,  then,  did  their  demand  displease  Samuel? 

6.  In  what  did  Samuel  evince  his  wisdom? 

7.  What  the  results? 

8.  Describe  the  character  of  an  Oriental  despot  as  given  in 
Samuel's  protest. 

9.  What  were  the  results  after  Samuel  showed  them  what  it  was 
to  have  a  king  like  other  nations  ? 

ID.  Prove  that  this  kind  of  a  kingdom  was  not  repugnant  to 
Jehovah's  plan,  as  set  forth  in  their  previous  history  and  law,  and  in 
their  subsequent  history. 

11.  If  then  it  was  immaterial  whether  the  ruler  was  called  judge 
or  king,  cite  a  relative  passage  from  Pope's  "Essay  on  Man." 

12.  What  further  evidence  that  the  people  had  to  see  and  admit 
their  wrong  in  seeking  to  displace  Samuel  as  judge? 

13.  How  were  the  words  of  Samuel  confirmed? 

14.  What  was  the  result? 

15.  Analyze  Samuel's  reply. 

16.  With  what  other  great  events  In  their  history  may  chapter  12 
be  compared? 

17.  What  two  great  doctrines  in  Samuel's  address  need  to  be 
emphasized? 

18.  What  Texas  illustration  of  the  second  doctrine? 


VI 

SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  70-74,  and 
other  references 

I  DEVOTE  an  extended  discussion  to  chapters  8  to  12 
because  it  is  necessary  to  fix  clearly  in  the  mind  the 
nature  of  the  kingdom  established  in  order  to  interpret 
correctly  the  history  of  the  kings  which  follows.  Without 
this  understanding  we  will  break  down  in  the  interpretation 
of  even  the  first  rejection  of  Saul,  and  with  Jehovah's  deal- 
ing with  every  subsequent  king.  Before  entering  upon  the 
history  of  the  first  king,  let  us  restate  tersely  the  salient 
points  which  define  the  Hebrew  monarchy : 

1.  A  government  by  kings  was  not  an  afterthought  with 
Jehovah,  but  was  one  of  the  predetermined  stages  of  the 
national  development  and  a  forecast  preparatory  to  the  set- 
ting up  of  the  Messianic  spiritual  kingdom. 

2.  Though  Jehovah  granted  Israel's  demand  for  a  kingly 
government  superseding  the  previous  rule  by  judges,  he  did 
not  establish  such  a  monarchy  as  they  desired,  like  that  of 
other  nations. 

3.  The  kingdom  established  had  a  written  charter  clearly 
defining  its  nature,  powers,  and  limitations,  the  basis  of 
which  was  given  to  Moses  (Deut.  17:14-20)  with  subse- 
quent enlargements  by  Samuel.  This  charter  made  the 
written  law,  the  Pentateuch,  the  constitution  of  the  king- 
dom. The  king  must  make  the  law  his  Vade  Meciim,  and 
the  rule  of  his  reign.  There  was  not  only  this  unalterable 
written  constitution,  but  to  emphasize  the  retention  of  the 

30 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  51 

theocratic  idea,  the  king  must  at  all  times  hear  and  obey 
the  fresh  messages  from  Jehovah,  coming  through  His  now 
estabhshed  order  of  the  prophets,  His  mouthpieces  and 
penmen.  This  part  of  the  charter  turns  a  blaze  of  light  on 
the  subsequent  history. 

4.  The  monarchy  was  not  elective  by  the  nation,  through 
corporate  action  of  their  great  congregation  or  general  as- 
sembly, but  each  king  must  be  appointed  by  Jehovah,  and 
that  appointment  designated  through  the  prophet,  Jehovah's 
mouthpiece.  Jehovah  chooses  the  king,  Jehovah's  prophet 
anoints  him  and  presents  him  to  the  assembly  for  acceptance. 

5.  The  monarchy  was  not  hereditary  in  the  modern 
sense.  A  dynasty  might  be  changed  at  Jehovah's  sole 
option,  as  from  the  house  of  Saul  to  the  house  of  David, 
and  it  did  not  follow  that  when  a  king's  son  succeeded  him 
that  he  should  be  the  first-born;  for  example,  the  case  of 
Solomon.  Whether  in  changing  a  dynasty,  or  designating 
which  son  of  a  king  should  succeed  his  father,  the  living 
prophet  was  Jehovah's  medium  of  making  known  His  will. 

6.  Neither  king  nor  general  assembly,  nor  both  co- 
joined,  had  the  power  to  declare  war,  direct  it  when  declared, 
make  peace,  or  contract  alliances,  except  as  Jehovah  directed 
through  His  living  prophet. 

7.  By  the  law,  and  through  the  living  prophet,  the  people 
were  safeguarded  from  the  tyranny  of  the  king.  See  the 
case  of  Nathan's  rebuke  of  David  for  the  wrong  against 
Uriah,  and  Elijah's  denunciation  of  Ahab  concerning 
Naboth's  vineyard. 

8.  Particularly,  the  prophet  spoke  with  all  authority 
from  God  in  matters  of  religion,  hedging  not  only  against 
idolatry  but  reliance  upon  formalism  and  ritualism,  all  the 
time  bringing  out  the  spiritual  meaning  of  the  law  and 
calling  for  repentance  and  reformation.  Therefore,  no  man 
can  interpret  any  part  of  the  mere  history  of  the  Hebrew 
monarchy  apart  from  the  section  of  the  Psalter  bearing 


5^  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

on  it,  and  the  contemporaneous  prophets.  On  this  account 
Wood's  "Hebrew  Monarchy,"  though  not  perfect  in  its 
arrangement,  excels  "Crockett's  Harmony"  as  a  textbook. 

A  quotation  from  a  prophet  pertinent  to  the  estabUsh- 
ment  of  the  monarchy  considered  in  the  preceding  chapter 
is  Hosea  13:9-11:  "It  is  thy  destruction,  O  Israel,  that  thou 
art  against  me,  against  thy  help.  Where  now  is  thy  king, 
that  he  may  save  thee  in  all  thy  cities?  and  thy  judges,  of 
whom  thou  saidst,  Give  me  a  king  and  princes  ?  I  have  given 
thee  a  king  in  mine  anger,  and  have  taken  him  away  in  my 
wrath." 

There  were  several  ways  by  which  the  people,  as  well  as 
the  king,  could  get  at  the  will  of  Jehovah  aoart  from  the 
written  law,  viz. : 

1.  By  submitting  a  question  to  the  Oracle  abiding  in 
the  Ark,  to  be  answered  by  the  high  priest,  wearing  his 
ephod,  through  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  I  Sam.  23 : 8-12. 

2.  By  appealing  to  the  prophets,  I  Sam.  9 : 6-9. 

3.  By  sacrifice  and  asking  of  signs ;  as  in  the  case  of 
Gideon,  Judges  6: 17-21. 

There  are  two  passages,  one  showing  the  despair  of  an 
individual,  and  the  other  showing  the  deplorable  condition 
of  the  nation,  from  whom,  on  account  of  aggravated  sins, 
God  has  cut  off  all  means  of  communication  with  Him.  In 
one,  Saul,  the  first  king,  in  his  later  life  thus  bemoans  his 
condition :  "And  when  Saul  saw  the  host  of  the  Philistines, 
he  was  afraid,  and  his  heart  trembled  greatly.  And  when 
Saul  inquired  of  Jehovah,  Jehovah  answered  him  not, 
neither  by  dreams,  nor  by  Urim,  nor  by  prophets,"  I  Sam. 
28:5.  In  the  other,  Hosea  thus  describes  the  pitiable  con- 
dition of  the  rebellious  Israel:  "For  the  children  of  Israel 
shall  abide  many  days  without  king,  and  without  prince, 
and  without  sacrifice,  and  without  pillar,  and  without  Ephod 
or  teraphim,"  Hosea  3:4. 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  53 

SAUL,    THE    FIRST    KING 

Certain  passages  bear  on  part  of  the  foregoing  statement 
of  the  nature  of  the  kingdom.  For  instance,  Jehovah  chose 
Saul  to  be  the  king,  privately  announcing  him  to  His  prophet, 
and  providentially  bringing  him  in  touch  with  this  prophet 
(I  Sam.  9:15)  and  later  before  the  great  Assembly  at 
Mizpah  He  makes  knov^n  His  choice  to  the  people  publicly 
(I  Sam.  10:17-21).  Acting  under  Jehovah's  direction,  the 
prophet  prepares  the  mind  of  Saul  for  the  high  honor 
(I  Sam.  9:20-25).  Then  privately  the  prophet  accounts 
him  as  king,  and  then  confirms  to  him  his  position  by  signs 
(10:2-7).  Then  by  an  induement  of  the  Holy  Spirit  he  is 
qualified  for  his  office.  Not  converted,  but  qualified  for 
his  office.  Then  the  prophet  brings  about  the  public  desig- 
nation before  the  people,  the  general  assembly  at  Mizpah 
(I  Sam.  10:17-21).  Then  the  prophet  arranges  for  his 
recognition  by  the  people  in  a  subsequent  general  assembly 
at  Gilgal  (Sam.  10:8  and  11:14,  15).  Then  the  prophet 
vacates  his  own  office  of  judge,  I  Sam.  12. 

It  is  easy  to  see  from  the  text  the  details  of  which  I  need 
not  give,  just  what  Jehovah  does,  just  what  the  prophet 
does,  just  what  the  people  do,  just  what  Saul  does,  and  par- 
ticularly the  text  shows  how  Jehovah  prepares  the  people 
to  accept  Saul — prepares  the  prophet  first,  then  prepares 
Saul  and  then  the  people. 

The  several  stages  showing  the  preparation  of  Saul  are 
intensely  interesting.  The  first  hint  which  Samuel  gives  to 
Saul  seemed  to  him  an  incredible  thing,  for  he  says,  ''I 
belong  to  the  smallest  tribe,  and  our  family  is  a  subordinate 
one  in  that  tribe."  But  still,  it  puts  him  to  thinking.  Then 
Samuel  gives  him  the  post  of  honor  in  entertaining,  and 
that  puts  him  to  thinking.  Then  Samuel  privately  anoints 
him  as  king,  and  that  ceremony  impresses  him.  Then  Sam- 
uel predicts  three  signs,  the  object  of  which  is  to  satisfy 


54  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Saul  thoroughly  and  to  confirm  the  kingship  in  his  own 
mind;  and  particularly  the  last  of  the  three,  which  was 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  would  come  upon  him  in  the  gift  of 
prophesying,  and  he  would  be  changed  into  another  man. 

Note  Saul's  reticence:  First,  when  his  uncle  asks  him 
where  he  had  been,  and  he  tells  him  about  the  prophet's 
informing  him  that  the  asses  have  been  found,  but  does  not 
say  a  word  about  the  kingship;  again,  when  after  he  is 
publicly  designated  and  some  of  the  evil-minded  people, 
children  of  Belial,  declared  that  they  could  not  accept  him 
as  king,  because  they  saw  no  salvation  in  him,  instead  v^f 
getting  mad  and  answering  in  resentful  language,  Saul  holds 
his  peace.  He  never  says  a  word;  he  knows  how  to  wait. 
Again,  we  notice  that  notwithstanding  all  the  things  that 
have  occurred  so  far,  when  at  that  great  gathering  at  Miz- 
pah  where  he  was  to  be  publicly  shown  as  king,  Saul  hides, 
and  when  the  question  comes  up  and  when  the  lot  deter- 
mined Saul  as  king,  they  ask  where  he  is,  and  God  said, 
"He  is  hiding  among  the  stuff" — the  baggage. 

I  once  preached  a  sermon  from  that  text  on  God's  discov- 
ering a  number  of  appointed  men  hiding  with  the  stuff, 
more  concerned  about  their  farming  and  the  things  of  the 
world  than  about  the  preaching  of  His  Word.  In  the  army 
every  soldier  thought  it  disgraceful  if  he  had  to  stay  with 
the  baggage  when  the  battle  came  on.  Since  he  could  be 
pointed  at  as  the  soldier  who  had  to  stay  with  the  stuff,  he 
wanted  to  be  on  the  firing  line. 

I  am  showing  you  all  these  things  to  mark  the  progress 
in  Saul's  own  mind,  and  God's  leading  him  step  by  step. 
After  a  while  he  is  wide  awake  enough  for  the  kingly  honor. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  meaning  of  apostasy,  what  is 
essential  in  a  particular  case  to  prove  the  doctrine,  and 
what  the  application  to  Saul,  and  explain  I  Sam.  10:5,  6, 
10:9,  10.  Apostasy  means  that  a  regenerated  man  may  be 
finally  and  forever  lost.    In  order  to  prove  that  doctrine  by 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  55 

a  particular  case,  the  evidence  must  be  indubitable  on  two 
points :  First,  that  in  the  case  selected  there  was  first  regen- 
eration, and  second,  that  this  regenerated  one  was  finally 
and  forever  lost.  The  proof  must  be  ample  and  unequivocal 
at  both  ends — regeneration  and  damnation. 

On  these  premises,  we  examine  the  particular  case  of  Saul, 
King  of  Israel.  A  failure  of  demonstration  that  he  was  a 
regenerated  man,  or  that  he  was  finally  lost,  deprives  the 
doctrine  of  apostasy,  as  defined  above,  from  any  support 
from  the  particular  case  of  Saul.  If  the  proof  fall  short 
at  either  point,  there  is  no  need  to  consider  the  other. 
Therefore,  let  us  shorten  matters  by  attention  to  one  point 
only  :  Was  Saul  a  regenerated  man  ?  In  the  case  under  con- 
sideration, the  passages  relied  upon  to  establish  the  conten- 
tion that  Saul  was  a  truly  regenerated  man,  a  spiritual  child 
of  God,  are: 

First,  Samuel's  promise,  I  Sam.  10:5,  6 :  "Thou  shalt 
be  turned  into  another  man." 

Second,  the  historian's  declaration  of  the  fulfillment  of 
the  promise,  I  Sam.  10:9,  10:  "God  gave  him  another 
heart."  A  careful  examination  of  both  passages  (American 
Standard  Revision)  settles  conclusively  that  in  the  promise, 
the  Holy  Spirit  would  in  some  sense  come  upon  Saul,  with 
the  result  that  he  would  be  changed  into  another  man,  and 
that  in  the  fulfillment,  the  Holy  Spirit  did  come  upon  him  in 
the  sense  promised,  with  the  result  that  God  gave  him 
another  heart.  If  we  accept  the  record,  there  is  no  doubt 
here  that  the  Holy  Spirit  exerted  a  power  on  Saul  and  that 
consequently  there  was  a  change  in  him. 

The  questions  to  be  determined  are :  What  the  nature  of 
the  power  exerted,  and  of  the  resultant  change?  My  answer 
is  that  the  Spirit-power  promised  was  the  gift  of  prophesy- 
ing, which  throughout  the  scriptures  is  distinguished  from 
the  grace  of  regeneration,  and  the  change  was  according  to 
the  power,  and  that  the  end,  or  purpose,  exercised  was  not 


56  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

to  regenerate  Saul,  but  is  expressly  called  a  sign,  to  assure 
Saul's  doubting  mind  that  Jehovah  had  chosen  him  as  king. 
The  incredible  thing  to  Saul,  which  needed  confirmation  by 
signs,  was  not  that  he  would  become  a  child  of  God  by 
regeneration,  but  that  he  whose  tribe  was  so  small,  and  the 
position  of  whose  family  in  that  tribe  was  so  low,  should 
be  chosen  of  Jehovah  to  be  king  of  all  Israel.  The  nature 
of  the  power  exerted  and  the  resultant  change  effected  are 
thus  determined  by  their  purpose. 

The  difference  between  the  grace  of  regeneration  and  the 
miraculous  gift  of  the  Spirit  is  expressed  thus:  The  grace 
of  regeneration  is  not  a  sign,  but  the  miraculous  gift  of  the 
Spirit  is  a  sign,  and  is  so  regarded  in  both  Testaments.  In 
the  same  way,  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost was  not  to  regenerate  the  apostles,  all  of  whom  but 
Judas  were  already  Christians,  but  to  assure  their  hearts, 
and,  as  signs,  to  accredit  them  to  others. 

In  I  Cor.  12-14  the  whole  matter  is  laid  bare  so  that  a 
child  can  understand  it.  Very  sharply,  and  at  many  points, 
does  Paul  contrast  these  miraculous  and  temporary  endue- 
ments  of  the  Spirit,  given  for  signs,  with  the  grace  of  regen- 
eration expressed  in  the  abiding  fruits  of  faith,  hope  and 
love.  Regeneration  is  one  thing  in  all  cases.  The  miracu- 
lous gifts  of  the  Spirit  were  diverse.  One  of  the  recipients, 
like  Saul,  might  prophesy,  another  work  miracles,  another 
speak  with  tongues,  another  interpret  tongues. 

The  Spirit-power  received  on  Pentecost  did  change  the 
apostles ;  did,  in  an  important  sense,  give  them  other  hearts, 
as  we  may  learn  from  the  coward,  Peter,  trembling  before  a 
maidservant,  and  the  Peter,  bold  as  a  lion,  on  Pentecost. 

In  the  Corinthian  discussion  (I  Cor.  12:14)  Paul  makes 
clear,  first,  that  faith,  hope  and  love,  the  evidences  and  fruits 
of  regeneration,  are  superior  in  nature  and  more  edifying 
in  exercise  than  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit,  one  of  which  only 
Saul  had ;  second,  that  all  these  signs  would  cease,  but  that 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  57 

regeneration,   evidenced   by   faith,  hope   and   love,   would 
abide. 

If  we  look  for  evidences  of  regeneration  in  Saul's  life,  we 
do  not  find  them.  If  we  look  for  evidences  of  a  miraculous 
Spirit-gift  bestowed  on  him  for  assurance  to  him  that  Jeho- 
vah wanted  him  to  be  king,  and  for  a  sign  to  others,  we 
do  find  them,  and  we  also  find  that  this  gift  of  the  Spirit  was 
withdrawn  from  him  when  becoming  unworthy  of  office, 
Jehovah  no  longer  wants  him  as  king.  But,  perhaps,  the 
strongest  evidence  in  the  Bible  that  Saul  was  not  a  regen- 
erated man  is  to  be  found  in  God's  contrast  between  Saul 
and  Solomon  on  this  very  point  (see  Revised  Version  of 
II  Sam.  7:13-16  and  I  Chron.  17:11-13).  Here  it  is  un- 
equivocally taught  that  Saul  was  not  a  regenerated  man, 
but  Solomon  was.  The  regeneration  of  Solomon,  as  con- 
trasted with  Saul,  appears  in  this : 

1.  God  was  Solomon's  spiritual  Father,  and  Solomon 
was  God's  spiritual  son. 

2.  Therefore,  when  he  sinned,  Solomon  was  chastised 
as  a  child  and  not  as  an  ahen. 

3.  Being  a  child,  God's  loving  kindness  would  not  be 
withdrawn,  as  in  the  case  of  Saul. 

Old  John  Bunyan  was  accustomed  to  say,  ''Gifts  make 
a  preacher,  but  grace  makes  a  Christian."  Saul  had  the 
gift,  but  not  the  grace.  To  this  already  unanswerable  argu- 
ment we  may  add  that  a  miraculous,  because  supernatural, 
gift  may  be  bestowed  by  the  devil,  who  in  no  case  can 
regenerate.  This  power  of  Satan  can  of  course  be  exercised 
only  through  God's  permission,  and  this  permission  is  never 
granted  except  to  test  men,  or  as  a  punitive  judgment  on 
men  who  refuse  to  be  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit. 

In  Saul's  own  case,  this  permission  was  granted,  as  we 
see  from  the  result  being  as  before,  that  Saul  prophesied. 
Read  the  passage  and  see.  Later  we  will  find  a  similar  case. 
The  New  Testament  explains  the  ground  of  this  permission 


68  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

thus  (see  H  Thess.  2:8-13)  :  ''And  then  shall  be  revealed 
the  lawless  one,  whom  the  Lord  Jesus  shall  slay  with  the 
breath  of  His  mouth,  and  bring  to  naught  by  the  manifesta- 
tion of  His  coming,  even  he  whose  coming  is  according  to 
the  working  of  Satan,  with  all  power  and  signs  and  lying 
wonders,  and  with  all  deceit  of  unrighteousness  for  them 
that  perish,  because  they  received  not  the  love  of  the  truth 
that  they  might  be  saved.  And  for  this  cause,  God  sendeth 
them  a  working  of  error,  that  they  should  believe  a  lie,  that 
they  all  might  be  judged  who  believed  not  the  truth,  but 
had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness.  But  we  are  bound  to  give 
thanks  to  God  always  for  you,  brethren  beloved  of  the 
Lord,  for  that  God  chose  you  from  the  beginning  unto 
salvation  in  sanctification  of  the  Spirit  and  belief  of  the 
truth." 

And  it  is  precisely  on  this  account  that  John  says  (John 
4:1),  "Beloved,  beheve  not  every  spirit,  but  prove  the 
spirits,  whether  they  be  of  God,  because  many  false  prophets 
are  gone  out  into  the  world.''  No  miracle  can  accredit  a 
doctrine  contrary  to  the  written  Word. 

To  make  evident  the  application  of  this  line  of  argument 
to  Saul's  case,  we  are  assured  that  these  miracles,  signs  and 
wonders,  wrought  by  Satan  and  his  demons,  no  matter 
how  plausible  nor  how  convincing  to  their  dupes,  can  never 
possibly  deceive  the  elect  (see  Mark  13:22  and  Matt. 
24:24).  But  the  evil  spirit's  miracle  causing  Saul  to 
prophesy  (I  Sam.  16:14  and  18:10)  did  deceive  him  and 
straightway  led  him  to  seek  the  murder  of  David,  led  him 
to  the  slaughter  of  the  priests  of  Nob  (22:9-19),  and  led 
him  to  irretrievable  ruin,  despair  and  suicide. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  devote  any  extended  discussion  to  chapters  8  to  12? 

2.  Even  now,  before  entering  upon  the  history  of  the  first  king, 
restate  tersely  the  salient  points  which  define  the  Hebrew  monarchy. 

3.  Cite  a  quotation  from  a  prophet  pertinent  to  the  establishment 
of  the  monarchy  considered  in  the  preceding  chapter. 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  59 

4.  In  what  ways  could  the  people,  as  well  as  the  king,  get  at  the 
will  of  Jehovah  apart  from  the  written  law  ? 

5.  Cite  two  passages,  one  showing  the  despair  of  the  individual, 
and  the  other  showing  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  nation,  from 
whom  on  account  of  aggravated  sins,  God  has  cut  off  all  means  of 
communication  with  Him, 

6.  Cite,  in  order,  certain  passages  bearing  on  part  of  the  foregoing 
statement  of  the  nature  of  the  kingdom. 

7.  What  did  Jehovah  do,  what  did  the  prophet  do,  what  did  the 
people  do,  and  what  did  Saul  do  to  prepare  the  people  to  accept  Saul? 

8.  Describe  Saul's  reticence  in  accepting  this  high  position  of  honor. 

9.  What  is  the  meaning  of  apostasy,  what  is  the  essential  feature 
in  a  particular  case  to  prove  the  doctrine,  and  what  the  application 
to  Saul,  explaining  I  Sam.  10 :  5,  6 ;  10 :  9, 10? 

10.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  grace  of  regeneration  and 
the  miraculous  gift  of  the  Spirit?  Illustrate  by  New  Testament 
instances. 

11.  What,  then,  do  we  find  in  Saul's  life,  and  what  the  strongest 
evidence  in  the  Bible  that  he  was  not  regenerated  ? 

12.  What  was  Bunyan's  saying,  and  what  added  argument? 

13.  What  is  the  purpose  of  God's  permission  of  the  devil  to  bestow 
miraculous  gifts,  and  what  New  Testament  testimony? 

14.  What  the  difference  in  effect  of  these  miracles  of  the  devil 
on  the  saved  and  the  unsaved,  and  how  does  Saul's  case  illustrate? 


VII 

SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING 
(Continued) 

Scriptures:  Same  as  in  preceding  chapter 

IT  is  contended  by  some  that  the  reference  to  Saul's 
"another  heart"  is  equivalent  to  the  "new  heart"  of 
Ezek.  36 :  26,  to  which  we  may  safely  reply  that  the 
''another  heart"  given  to  Saul  was  not  equivalent  to  the 
passage  cited  in  Ezekiel.  But  when  we  come  to  Saul's 
death,  in  the  history,  to  sum  up  his  character,  we  will  not 
be  able  to  classify  him  with  Judas,  though  there  are  some 
points  similar,  particularly  in  that  both  were  led  by  a  domi- 
nant evil  spirit  to  despair  and  self-destruction.  Saul,  in 
many  ways,  was  a  finer  man  than  Judas,  leaving  behind 
precious  memories  of  some  deeds  and  traits  which  evoked 
the  gratitude  of  the  men  of  Jabesh-gilead,  the  unswerving 
attachment  of  several  tribes,  and  the  beautiful  eulogy  of 
David.  Nothing  Hke  these  do  we  find  in  the  low,  avaricious, 
treacherous  life  of  Judas. 

Believers  in  apostasy  use  the  life  of  Saul  to  prove  apos- 
tasy, and  I  do  not  wonder  that  they  take  this  case  as  the 
basis  of  their  argument  to  sustain  the  doctrine  of  apostasy, 
since  it  is  the  most  plausible  in  the  Bible,  but  if  this  case 
fails  in  demonstration  they  may  not  hope  for  support  in 
any  other.  But  they  may  ask,  "What  then  does  Paul  mean 
in  Gal.  5:4:  *  Ye  are  fallen  away  from  grace  ?' "  To  which 
we  again  reply  that  the  scriptural  phrase,  "Ye  are  fallen 
away  from  grace,"  as  used  by  Paul  in  Gal.  5:4,  does  not 

60 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  61 

imply  that  real  Christians,  the  truly  regenerate,  may  be 
finally  lost,  but  that  those  once  accepting  the  doctrine  of 
salvation  by  grace,  and  then  returning  to  a  doctrine  of  sal- 
vation by  works,  have  fallen  away  from  grace.  They  have 
turned  from  one  doctrine  to  the  opposite  one,  as  often  hap- 
pens in  practical  life,  without  meaning  that  either  the  original 
acceptance  was  regeneration,  or  the  falling  away  from  it' 
was  final.  In  Paul's  meaning  of  the  phrase,  men  may  fall 
from  grace. 

We  have  now  seen  how  Jehovah  prepared  His  prophet 
for  designation  of  Saul  as  king,  how  He  prepared  Saul  for 
the  great  honor,  and  how  He  prepared  the  people  to  accept 
Saul.  Before  advancing  in  the  history,  we  need  to  under- 
stand more  particularly  certain  matters  in  the  record  already 
so  tersely  covered,  particularly  the  steps  of  the  people's 
preparation  to  accept  Saul,  and  how  gradually  the  accept- 
ance was,  in  a  glorious  climax,  made  complete: 

1.  The  gift  of  prophesying  came  upon  Saul,  enduing 
him  for  service,  and  this  being  in  the  company  of  the  school 
of  the  prophets,  prepared  the  mighty  prophetic  order  to 
recognize  him  as  God's  man.  As  this  enduement  of  power 
came  on  him  also  in  the  presence  of  many  of  the  people,  it 
was  designed  to  accredit  him  to  them.  But  they  were  more 
startled  by  the  prodigy  than  they  were  made  ready  to  accept 
him.  There  is  something  scornful  in  their  saying,  which 
became  a  proverb :  "Is  Saul  also  among  the  prophets  ?'* 
Their  scorn  is  somewhat  mitigated  by  a*  bystander's  ques- 
tion: "Who  is  their  father?"  meaning,  "What  in  their 
descent  puts  the  prophets  above  Saul  that  you  should  won- 
der at  the  bestowal  on  him  of  the  prophetic  gift?"  God 
bestowed  it,  and  not  on  account  of  family  position. 

2.  Jehovah's  choice  of  him  by  an  extraordinary  method 
in  the  great  congregation  at  Mizpah  as  the  man  for  the 
place  out  of  all  Israel.  As  this  method  of  showing  divine 
selection  had  availed  in  Joshua's  time  in  infallibly  point- 


62  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

ing  out  Achan,  the  one  criminal  out  of  millions  (Joshua 
7:  14-18),  and  would  again  avail  in  David's  time  (I  Sam. 
16: 12),  it  ought  to  have  been  equally  convincing  in  showing 
Jehovah's  choice  of  a  king.  It  did  convince  most  of  the 
people,  who  shouted  their  acceptance  in  a  phrase  that  has 
gone  round  the  world:  *'God  save  the  King!"  But  not  all 
were  satisfied,  for  certain  sons  of  Belial  said,  ''How  shall 
this  man  save  us?"  And  they  despised  him  and  brought 
no  present.  You  must  note  that  the  phrase,  ''sons  of  Belial," 
retains  the  meaning  already  established  (I  Sam.  1:16; 
2:12).  Belial  is  a  proper  name,  meaning  the  devil,  and 
quite  in  keeping  with  their  nature,  the  devil's  childrea  will 
not  accept  Jehovah's  choice  of  a  king. 

3.  The  spirit  of  Jehovah  comes  upon  Saul  and  demon- 
strates his  fitness  for  the  high  honor  by  leading  to  the  deliv- 
erance of  Jabesh-gilead.  It  is  not  enough  to  shout,  "God 
save  the  king,"  but  will  you  fall  in  line  and  follow  the  king? 
In  his  call  to  war,  Saul  rightly  associates  his  name  with 
Samuel's  (I  Sam.  11:7)  and  "the  dread  of  the  Lord  fell 
on  all  the  people,  and  they  came  out  as  one  man." 

This  practical  demonstration  of  Saul's  fitness  wrought 
unanimity  in  his  acceptance,  and  led  the  people  to  demand 
of  Samuel  the  death  of  those  who  had  refused  Jehovah's 
choice,  Saul's  wisdom  again  appearing  in  refusing  to  stain 
the  glorious  beginning  of  his  reign  with  the  blood  of  political 
executions. 

4.  The  people  now  being  prepared  in  mind  to  accept 
Jehovah's  choice,  under  divine  direction,  they  were  formally 
and  officially  committed  by  the  ratification  at  Gilgal  in 
solemn  assembly,  with  appropriate  sacrifices,  and  great  re- 
joicing of  both  king  and  people,  followed  by  Samuel's  sur- 
render of  the  office  of  judge.  This  meeting  at  Gilgal  is  the 
dividing  official  line  of  separation  between  the  period  of  the 
judges  and  the  period  of  the  monarchy. 

Before,  we  have  only  shown  the  steps  toward  transition. 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  63 

The  scene  of  the  consummation  was  most  fitting,  for  at 
Gilgal  the  period  of  the  pilgrimage  ended  and  the  period  of 
the  conquest  commenced,  and  at  Gilgal  the  distribution  of 
a  part  of  the  land  took  place  officially,  ending,  in  part,  the 
conquest  period  of  the  judges. 

5.  Jehovah,  king,  prophet,  and  general  assembly  are  in 
full  accord,  the  functions  of  all  clearly  distinguished  and 
defined.  Happy  beginning  of  the  monarchy !  The  later  his- 
tory will  show  wherein,  when,  and  how  the  glorious  charter 
of  the  kingdom  is  violated  by  prophet,  king  or  people.  We 
will  find  a  sad  history,  enlivened  here  and  there  by  deeds 
of  heroes  and  song  of  bards.  But  the  picture  will  gather 
deepening  shadows  until  the  eclipse  is  completed  by  the 
downfall  of  the  monarchy.  The  chief  heroes  will  be  the 
prophets,  a  few  kings  will  be  illustrious,  and  very  rarely, 
a  priest. 

The  distinction  in  the  meaning  of  the  words  "seer"  and 
"prophet,"  used  as  synonymous  in  I  Sam.  9:7,  is  this: 
"Prophet"  has  the  larger  meaning,  including  all  the  import 
of  "seer."  Strictly  speaking,  the  word  "seer"  refers  only 
to  one  method  of  receiving  revelation,  i.e.,  in  vision.  A 
prophet  not  only  had  the  gift  of  vision,  but  was  in  all 
respects  the  mouthpiece,  or  penman,  of  Jehovah  in  teaching, 
reforming,  or  recording.  He  was  by  inspiration  God's 
direct  legatee,  ambassador,  or  representative,  with  authority 
above  king  or  people. 

There  is  a  humorous  play  on  the  common  version  of 
I  Sam.  10 :  14  which  a  deacon  once  made  to  an  indiscreet 
preacher,  saying,  "My  dear  sir,  if  you  keep  on  shooting  off 
your  mouth  half-cocked,  you  will  presently  find  yourself 
where  Saul  perceived  his  father's  asses  to  be."  The  words 
of  the  text  in  that  version  are:  "We  saw  they  were  no- 
where." 


64  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

saitl's  reign  after  the  ratification  in  gilgal 

I  Sam.  13:1  says,  "Saul  was  forty  years  old  when  he 
began  to  reign,  and  when  he  had  reigned  two  years  over 
Israel,  Saul  chose  him  three  thousand  men  of  Israel,"  etc. 
His  personal  appearance  is  described  in  I  Sam.  10 :  23,  24 : 
"From  his  shoulders  upward  he  was  higher  than  the  people. 
None  of  them  were  like  him."  Hence  the  proverb :  "Head 
and  shoulders  above  his  fellows."  We  will  find  later  that 
his  armour  was  too  large  for  David.  The  conditions  of  his 
reign  were  hard.  At  this  time  Israel  was  dominated  by  the 
Philistines  on  the  Southwest,  assailed  by  Amalek  on  the 
South,  by  Ammon,  Moab  and  Edom  on  the  Southeast,  and 
by  Zobah,  or  Syria,  on  the  Northeast,  but  against  all  these 
at  times  Saul  waged  a  victorious  war.  Besides  this  his 
resources  were  limited.  He  had  no  standing  army,  no  arms, 
no  equipment,  no  public  treasury  except  spoils  gathered  in 
battle,  and  the  whole  country  was  impoverished  by  raids 
and  invasions  of  his  many  enemies.  I  Sam.  13  :  19-23  shows 
the  pitiable  condition  of  the  people  as  to  artificers,  imple- 
ments of  industry  and  arms:  "Now  there  was  no  smith 
found  throughout  all  the  land  of  Israel ;  for  the  Philistines 
said.  Lest  the  Hebrews  make  them  swords  or  spears:  But 
all  the  Israelites  went  down  to  the  Philistines,  to  sharpen 
every  man  his  share,  and  his  coulter,  and  his  axe,  and  his 
mattock;  yet  they  had  a  file  for  the  mattocks,  and  for  the 
coulters,  and  for  the  forks,  and  for  the  axes,  and  to  set  the 
goads.  So  it  came  to  pass  in  the  day  of  battle,  that  there 
was  neither  sword  nor  spear  found  in  the  hand  of  the 
people  that  were  with  Saul  and  Jonathan;  but  with  Saul 
and  with  Jonathan  his  son  was  there  found."  This  state- 
ment has  its  great  lessons. 

No  people  can  become  or  remain  safe  and  prosperous 
who  are  dependent  on  other  nations  for  mechanicians,  manu- 
factured goods,  and  their  means  of  transportation.     This 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  65 

was  illustrated  in  the  great  controversy  and  war  between 
the  States.  During  the  controversy  there  appeared  a  book 
by  a  renegade  North  CaroHnian,  entitled:  "Helper's  Im- 
pending Crisis,"  in  which  he  thus  pictured  the  South's 
unpreparedness  for  war,  and  the  certain  disasters  which 
would,  in  the  case  of  war,  necessarily  overtake  it.  I  never 
read  it  but  one  time,  and  that  was  when  I  was  a  child,  but 
it  was  burnt  into  my  mind  so  that  I  can  repeat  it  now : 

"A  Southern  man  gets  up  in  the  morning  from  between 
Northern  sheets,  having  slept  on  a  Northern  mattress,  rest- 
ing on  a  Northern  bedstead,  washes  his  face  in  a  Northern 
bowl,  dries  his  face  on  a  Northern  towel,  brushes  his  hair 
and  teeth  with  Northern  brushes,  puts  on  Northern  clothes ; 
goes  into  his  dining  room  and  sits  down  at  a  Northern  din- 
ing table  covered  by  a  Northern  table-cloth,  on  which  are 
Northern  cups,  saucers,  plates,  knives,  forks,  and  in  a 
Southern  hog-country  eats  Northern  bacon.  Then  he  goes 
out  and  hitches  his  horse  to  a  Northern  plow ;  or  to  a  North- 
ern buggy ;  or  having  tied  around  his  neck  a  Northern  cra- 
vat, he  goes  to  pay  his  address  to  his  girl,  who  is  dressed  in 
Northern  dimity  and  calicoes,  and  when  he  comes  to  die, 
he  is  wrapped  in  a  Northern  shroud,  his  grave  is  dug  with  a 
Northern  spade  and  mattock,  and  the  only  thing  he  has 
which  is  Southern  is  the  hole  in  the  ground  where  he  is 
buried." 

Now,  as  a  consequence,  just  as  soon  as  the  war  broke  out, 
having  no  factories,  having  no  railroads  running  east  and 
west,  having  no  control  of  the  land  and  water  transporta- 
tion, in  six  months  we  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation.  I 
saw  several  companies  of  Sibley's  brigade  start  to  New 
Mexico  armed  with  lances — old-fashioned  lances,  a  long, 
dressed  pole  with  a  rude  point  to  it.  They  took  the  old- 
fashioned  flint  and  steel  muskets,  and  fixed  them  so  they 
could  use  percussion  caps;  they  did  not  have  a  breech- 
loading  gun.     Having  no  paper  factories,  the  newspapers 


66  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

were  being  printed  within  six  months  on  wall-paper — the 
printing  on  one  side  and  coloring  on  the  other.  I  paid  $22 
in  Mexican  silver  for  a  hatful  of  coffee  that  was  smuggled 
over  from  Mexico  (I  could  not  bear  to  see  my  mother  do 
without  coffee),  but  all  over  the  South  they  were  drinking 
parched  sweet  potatoes  for  coffee,  and  using  sassafras  tea, 
and  catnip  tea,  and  when  they  were  sick  they  used  boneset 
tea,  and  woe  to  the  man  who  had  to  take  it ! 

//  all  this  is  true  among  nations,  you  can  understand  what 
I  meant  when  I  said  woe  to  the  South,  where  the  people 
have  the  views  of  sound  doctrine,  when  it  sends  its  preach- 
ing implements  to  a  Northern  radical-critic  grindstone  in 
order  to  put  on  point  or  edge.  I  tell  you,  we  ought  never 
to  cease  praying  that  God  will  bless  our  Southwestern  Sent- 
inary,  and  establish  it  in  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

From  a  comparison  of  chap.  13:1,  2,  and  14:47-52  we 
must  suppose: 

1.  That  the  text  of  13:  i  is  defective.  Note  the  differ- 
ence in  the  rendering  between  the  common  version  and  the 
revised  version — a  very  considerable  difference. 

2.  That  according  to  the  summary  given  in  14:47-52, 
there  is  no  record  of  the  details  of  many  of  Saul's  cam- 
paigns. 

3.  As  Saul  was  a  young  man  when  made  king,  and  now 
comes  before  us  with  a  grown  son,  Jonathan,  already  a 
hero,  we  must  suppose  that  for  years  after  he  became  king 
his  reign  was  prosperous,  and  according  to  the  charter  of 
the  kingdom.  In  this  prosperous  part  of  his  reign  must 
always  be  placed  to  Saul's  credit  the  fact  that  under  the 
most  trying  conditions  he  proved  himself  a  great  hero  in 
war  against  mighty  odds,  while  possessing  amiable  char- 
acteristics which  endeared  him  to  his  family,  to  the  people 
and  to  Samuel.  According  to  David's  eulogy  he  found  the 
women  of  his  people  in  rags  and  clothed  them  in  scarlet, 
and  put  on  their  apparel  ornaments  of  gold.    He  taught  an 


SAUL,  THE  FIRST  KING  67 

unwarlike,  undisciplined  militia  to  become  mighty  warriors. 
His  whole  Hfe  was  one  series  of  battles,  beating  back  the 
enemies  who  were  pouring  in  on  every  side.  Then  consid- 
ering these  odds  against  him,  his  only  hope  lay  in  strict 
obedience  to  the  charter  of  his  kingdom,  thus  keeping 
Jehovah  as  his  friend.  He  never  began  to  fall  until  he 
made  God  his  enemy. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Is  the  reference  to  Saul's  "another  heart"  equivalent  to  the  "new 
heart"  of  Ezek.  36 :  26?  In  what  was  Saul  like  Judas,  and  in  what  was 
he  unlike  him  ? 

2.  Why  do  believers  in  apostasy  use  the  life  of  Saul  to  prove 
apostasy? 

3.  What  does  Paul  mean  in  Gal.  5:4:  "Ye  are  fallen  away  from 
grace?" 

4.  What,  particularly,  were  the  steps  of  the  people's  preparation 
to  accept  Saul,  and  how  gradually  was  the  acceptance,  in  glorious 
climax,  made  complete? 

5.  Distinguish  in  meaning  the  words  *'seer"  and  "prophet,"  used  as 
synonymous  in  I  Sam.  9:7. 

6.  What  humorous  play  on  the  common  version  of  I  Sam.  10: 14 
did  a  deacon  once  make  to  an  indiscreet  preacher? 

7.  How  old  was  Saul  when  he  began  to  reign? 

8.  What  was  his  personal  appearance  ? 

9.  What  were  the  hard  conditions  of  his  reign? 

10.  What  his  limited  resources? 

11.  Recite  the  passage  that  shows  the  pitiable  condition  of  the 
people  as  to  artificers,  implements  of  industry  and  arms. 

12.  What  great  lessons  are  derivable  from  this  statement? 

13.  What  must  we  suppose  from  a  comparison  of  chap.  13 :  i,  2, 
and  14 :  47-52  ? 

14.  In  this  prosperous  part  of  his  reign,  what  must  always  be  placed 
to  Saul's  credit? 

15.  Considering  these  odds  against  him,  wherein  lay  his  only  hope  ? 


VIII 

THE  PASSING  OF  SAUL  AND  HIS  DYNASTY 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  75-79 

THERE  are  real  difficulties,  puzzling  to  a  Bible  stu- 
dent, in  I  Samuel,  13  and  14.  These  difficulties  are 
of  three  kinds :  first,  in  the  text ;  second,  in  the  order 
of  events ;  third,  in  determining  the  length  of  Saul's  reign. 
The  first  difficulty  of  the  text  is  in  the  first  sentence,  13:  i. 
According  to  the  historian's  formula  elsewhere,  introducing 
the  account  of  a  reign,  we  would  naturally  expect  this 
initial  sentence  to  tell  us  two  facts:  Saul's  age  when  he 
began  to  reign,  and  the  duration  of  his  reign,  somewhat 
thus :  "Saul  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign, 
and  he  reigned  over  Israel  forty  years,"  but  our  present 
Hebrew  text  cannot  be  so  rendered,  nor  can  we  satisfac- 
torily make  out  the  text  from  a  comparison  with  the  ver- 
sions. The  Hebrews  designated  numbers  by  letters,  hence 
it  is  quite  easy  in  the  matter  of  numbers  for  a  mistake  to 
creep  in.  In  the  Hebrew  of  13:1  Saul's  age  is  not  stated. 
When  the  versions  attempt  to  supply  the  number  from  inter- 
nal evidence,  it  amounts  only  to  conjecture.  The  unrevised 
Septaugint  omits  that  first  verse  altogether,  but  a  revision 
of  that  version  gives  it,  and  makes  it  read  that  Saul  was 
thirty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign.  The  American 
Standard  Revision  fills  the  blank  with  forty  years  as  his 
age  when  he  began  to  reign,  and  connects  verse  i  with 
verse  2.  The  Jew,  Isaac  Leeser,  in  his  English  version, 
renders  that  first  verse  thus :  "When  Saul  had  reigned  one 
year — and  two  years  he  reigned  over  Israel,"  which  leaves 

66 


THE  PASSING  OF  SAUL  69 

the  whole  verse  "up  in  the  air,"  with  two  gaps  in  it.  Other 
Jews  render  it  thus:  "Saul  was  the  son  of  a  year  when  he 
began  to  reign,  and  when  he  had  reigned  two  years  he 
chose  for  himself,  etc."  This  rendering  could  be  made  to 
mean  that  Saul  was  as  inexperienced,  or  as  simple,  as  a 
year-old  child  when  he  commenced  to  reign,  but  after  he 
had  reigned  two  years  he  began  to  assume  the  air  of  royalty 
by  organizing  a  small  standing  army  as  a  bodyguard,  or  as 
a  nucleus  around  which  militia  levies  could  be  assembled 
in  time  of  war.  In  the  judgment  of  the  author,  there  is 
no  direct  connection  between  verse  i  and  verse  2,  nor  is  he 
able  to  remove  the  difficulty.  It  seems  probable  that  that 
first  sentence  should  follow  the  usual  formula  of  the  his- 
torian, and  that  if  we  had  the  true  text,  it  would  so  appear. 

The  second  text-difficulty  is  in  13:5,  which  gives  the 
Philistines  "thirty  thousand  chariots,"  a  number  of  chariots 
which  seems  to  be  so  incredible,  so  unnecessary,  and  so 
wholly  out  of  proportion  to  other  departments  of  their 
army,  that  one  is  disposed  to  imagine  that  some  copyist 
erred  in  writing  the  Hebrew  letters  by  which  they  express 
the  number  of  chariots.  Probably  the  number  was  one 
thousand. 

The  third  text-difficulty  is  the  word,  "Ark,"  in  14 :  18. 
We  would  naturally  conclude  from  I  Sam.  7:  i,  2,  and  from 
I  Chron.  13 : 1-14  that  the  Ark  remained  at  Kirjath-jearim 
until  its  removal  to  Jerusalem  by  David.  Moreover,  David 
says  expressly,  "We  sought  not  unto  the  Ark  in  the  days  of 
Saul."  The  best  explanation  of  this  difficulty  is  that  the 
Septuagint,  with  a  better  Hebrew  text  before  it,  renders  the 
verse  thus:  "And  Saul  said  to  Ahijah,  Bring  hither  the 
Ephod.    For  he  wore  the  Ephod  at  that  time  before  Israel." 

In  determining  the  order  of  events  we  find  that  the  para- 
graph, I  Sam.  14:47-52,  gives  a  summary  of  Saul's  wars 
and  of  his  family,  and  inasmuch  as  the  historian  gives  no 
details  of  at  least  three  of  these  wars,  to  wit:  the  war  with 


70  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Ammon,  with  Edom  and  with  the  kings  of  Zobah,  i.e.,  Syria, 
the  difficulty  is  to  know  just  where  these  wars  should  be 
placed.  Evidently  there  is  no  place  for  them  after  the 
beginning  of  this  section,  and  if  they  be  put  before  this 
section,  then  time  must  be  allowed  for  them,  as  well  as  for 
the  arrival  to  mature  age  of  Saul's  sons  and  daughters. 

In  determining  the  duration  of  Saul's  reign,  the  difficulty 
in  the  Hebrew  text  of  13:1  forces  us  to  rely  upon  one 
statement  only,  that  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  Acts  13:21,  who 
says:  "Saul  reigned  by  the  space  of  forty  years."  In  an 
edited  edition  of  Josephus'  ''Antiquity  of  the  Jews,"  Book 
VI,  last  sentence  of  that  book,  the  reading  is :  "Now  Saul, 
when  he  had  reigned  eighteen  years  while  Samuel  was  alive, 
and  after  his  death  2  [and  20],  ended  his  Hfe  in  this  man- 
ner." The  words  "and  20"  in  brackets  must  be  regarded 
as  an  interpolation,  being  out  of  harmony  with  the  author's 
heading  of  the  sixth  book,  which  assigns  only  thirty-two 
years  from  the  death  of  Eli  to  the  death  of  Saul.  Leaving 
out  the  bracketed  words,  Josephus  says  that  Saul  reigned 
18  years  while  Samuel  lived,  and  two  years  after  he  died. 
The  author  stands  by  Paul's  statement  that  he  reigned  by  the 
space  of  forty  years,  and  contends  that  this  harmonizes  best 
with  all  of  the  elements  of  the  history.  The  history  un- 
questionably makes  Saul  a  young  man  when  he  began  to 
reign.  There  must  be  time  for  all  of  the  wars  mentioned 
in  the  summary,  14 :  47-52,  and  for  Saul's  children,  sons  and 
daughters,  to  become  grown.  This  13th  chapter  presents 
Jonathan  a  grown  man  and  a  valorous  captain.  Therefore 
the  author  assumes  that  between  chapters  12,  when  Saul's 
reign  properly  commenced,  and  13,  we  must  allow  an  inter- 
val of  perhaps  twenty  years,  and  we  must  conclude,  from 
the  success  of  Saul  in  waging  victorious  war  with  Ammon, 
Edom  and  the  kings  of  Zobah,  or  Syria,  14:47^  that  such  an 
interval  must  be  provided  for  in  the  order. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  the  historian  gives  no  details 


THE  PASSING  OF  SAUL  71 

of  these  wars.  His  object  is  to  bring  us  quickly  to  that  part 
of  Saul's  reign  in  which,  by  two  great  decisive  acts,  he  vio- 
lates the  kingdom  charter.  For  years,  then,  we  presume 
that  Saul  was  faithful  to  that  charter,  prosperous  and  suc- 
cessful in  every  direction,  but  this  period  of  prosperity  is 
followed  by  a  triumph  of  the  Philistines,  who  so  dominated 
the  land  as  to  bring  about  the  conditions  as  described  in  our 
text,  I  Sam.  13  : 6,  7,  19-23,  and  it  is  at  this  period  of  national 
disaster  that  our  13th  chapter  commences  the  story.  Indeed, 
by  this  disaster  God  providentially  prepares  the  way  for  an 
account  of  Saul's  first  great  test,  which  could  not  come 
except  under  hard  conditions. 

We  may  count  it  a  difficulty  to  give  the  proper  rendering 
of  I  Sam.  13:3,  which  says  that  "Jonathan  smote  the  garri- 
son of  the  Philistines  that  was  in  Geba."  Very  able  scholars 
contend  that  this  word  should  not  be  rendered  "garrison" 
but  "monument,"  the  Philistines  having  erected  a  monument 
there  as  a  memorial  of  their  domination  over  the  land.  An- 
other scholar  contends  that  it  means  an  officer  who  at  that 
point  collected  the  tribute  from  the  subjugated  Hebrews,  but 
none  of  the  versions  so  render  the  word,  and  so  we  will 
count  that  word  to  mean  garrison. 

Another  line  of  interpretation,  as  to  the  order  of  events, 
is  advocated  by  mighty  minds,  including  Edersheim,  for 
whose  wide  range  of  learning,  splendid  scholarship,  piety, 
reverence,  and  especially  the  gift  of  spiritual  interpretation, 
the  author  has  a  profound  respect.  According  to  Eder- 
sheim, whose  arguments  sustaining  his  contention  are  so 
weighty,  the  boldest  might  well  hesitate  to  claim  dogmatic- 
ally the  rightfulness  of  the  order  we  have  just  considered, 
and  according  to  others,  including  the  American  Standard 
Revisers,  Saul  was  forty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign ; 
was  a  man  of  family,  his  oldest  son,  Jonathan,  being  a 
grown  man,  and  there  is  no  interval  between  the  history  in 
chap.  12  and  the  history  in  chap.  13,  but  it  is  continuous; 


72  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

therefore  the  wars,  14:47,  with  Ammon,  Edom  and  Syria, 
follow  the  victory  over  the  PhiUstines  recorded  in  chap.  13, 
and  the  hard  conditions  under  the  domination  of  the  Philis- 
tines recorded  in  chap.  13:6,  7,  19-23  were  the  conditions 
at  the  beginning  of  Saul's  reign.  This  would  place  the  test 
which  decided  the  dynasty  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  and 
with  propriety  place  later  the  second  test,  in  the  case  with 
Amalek,  resulting  in  his  personal  rejection.  With  this  order, 
Josephus  agrees.  The  serious  objections  to  this  theory  of 
order  are  thus  met  by  its  advocates.  They  admit  that  the 
record  in  chap.  9  declares  Saul  to  be  a  young  man  when  he 
met  Samuel,  and  that  it  is  a  part  of  a  young  man's  duty  to 
be  sent  off  to  find  the  stray  stock  of  his  father,  but  argue 
that  among  Hebrews  even  a  middle-aged  man  with  a  family 
is  called  a  young  man  and  is  under  the  direction  of  his 
father,  and  that  the  preceding  record  nowhere  gives  Saul's 
age,  and  that  the  only  place  where  we  would  expect  to  find 
it — chap.  13 :  i — the  numeral  expressed  in  a  Hebrew  letter 
is  wanting,  and  must  be  supplied  by  conjecture  based  on  the 
context.  In  meeting  Paul's  express  statement  that  Saul 
reigned  by  the  space  of  forty  years,  they  say  that  it  is  not 
in  the  line  of  Paul's  thought  to  be  exact,  and  that  his  forty 
years  is  expressed  in  round  numbers.  These  replies  to  the 
objections  are  not  satisfactory,  but  are  here  given  for  what 
they  are  worth. 

The  hero  of  this  war  with  the  Philistines  was  Jonathan, 
Saul's  brilliant  son.  He  it  is  that  brings  on  the  war  by  smit- 
ing the  Philistines'  garrison  at  Gibeah,  and  he  it  is  that 
decided  the  war  in  the  great  battle  of  Michmash.  Saul's 
part  of  the  whole  story  is  an  undignified  one.  The  follow- 
ing are  the  events,  in  order,  leading  up  to  his  failure  under 
the  first  test  to  which  he  was  subjected :  It  will  be  remem- 
bered that  Saul  was  made  king  with  the  special  view  of  de- 
livering Israel  from  the  Philistines,  and  that  having  only 
three  thousand  men  they  were  divided  into  two  small  corps, 


THE  PASSING  OF  SAUL  73 

occupying  strategically  the  best  positions  of  defense  against 
the  Philistines.  Then  when  Jonathan's  exploit  brought  on 
the  war  by  making  Israel  odious  to  the  Phihstines,  they 
assembled  the  largest  and  best  appointed  army  they  ever 
sent  to  the  field,  and  took  post  at  Michmash.  Saul  sounded 
the  trumpet  alarm  designed  to  bring  all  of  the  able-bodied 
men  of  Israel  to  his  side.  The  place  of  assembly  was  Gilgal, 
which  Samuel  had  appointed  with  the  express  command 
that  when  assembled  they  were  to  remain  seven  full  days 
until  he  himself  arrived,  and  when  he  had  offered  appro- 
priate sacrifices,  the  war  would  be  undertaken  under  Jeho- 
vah's direction. 

But  the  people  having  no  arms,  and  frightened  at  the  vast 
and  well  equipped  army  of  the  Philistines,  failed  to  respond. 
Some  of  them  went  into  the  caves  in  the  sides  of  the  moun- 
tains. Multitudes  of  them  fled  across  the  Jordan  into 
Gilead.  Saul's  own  bodyguard  did  not  all  assemble,  and  in 
the  days  of  waiting  began  to  desert,  so  that  he  was  left  with 
a  handful  of  men,  liable  at  any  time  to  be  cut  off  and  de- 
stroyed by  the  mighty  army  of  the  Phihstines.  In  this  case 
it  tried  his  patience  sorely  to  wait  seven  days,  his  army 
melting,  the  panic  increasing,  the  Philistine  army  near  and 
threatening. 

This  was  the  condition  of  a  test  of  his  character.  It  is 
certain  that  unless  there  could  be  assurance  from  Jehovah 
that  He  would  lead  and  manifest  His  power,  the  panic  would 
increase.  Samuel  designedly  delayed  his  coming  until  the 
last  hour  of  the  appointed  seven  days.  Saul  had  waited 
until  late  in  the  seventh  day;  Samuel  had  not  come.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  he  must,  by  sacrifices,  invoke  the  help 
of  Jehovah.  As  he  puts  it  himself,  under  these  conditions : 
"I  forced  myself  to  make  the  offerings  to  Jehovah."  Before 
the  offerings  were  completed,  Samuel  appeared,  but  Saul 
had  already  sinned. 

It  was  an  express  stipulation  of  the  charter  of  the  king- 


74  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

dom  that  the  king  must  wait  upon  Jehovah's  will  as  ex- 
pressed through  His  prophet.  Only  in  this  way  could  the 
kingdom  endure.  If  the  king  acted  on  his  own  wisdom,  as 
the  kings  of  other  nations,  then  it  was  certain  he  would 
fail.  His  only  hope  was  to  abide  absolutely  with  that  pro- 
vision of  the  charter  which  acknowledged  the  theocratic  idea 
that  the  earthly  king  was  subordinate  to  the  divine  King. 
The  penalty  of  his  failure  in  this  test  was  not  his  personal 
rejection  as  king,  but  it  was  the  rejection  of  his  dynasty. 
He  himself  remained  king,  but  the  monarchy  could  not  be 
transmitted  to  his  children.  The  kingly  authority  was  to  be 
removed  from  Saul's  family,  and  given  to  another 
family. 

The  events  after  this  failure  of  Saul  were  as  follows: 
First,  the  word  of  Jehovah  through  His  prophet  having 
been  despised,  Samuel  leaves  Saul,  the  panic  increases,  his 
followers  decrease  in  number,  he  is  left  with  a  handful  of 
men  to  take  the  most  defensive  position ;  then,  as  has  been 
stated,  it  was  Jonathan  who  delivered  the  people  from  this 
threatening  condition.  The  prophet  being  gone,  Jonathan 
asked  Jehovah  to  designate  by  a  sign  whether  he  should 
attack  the  Philistine  host.  The  sign  was  a  very  simple  one. 
Jonathan  having  reconnoitered  the  enemy's  position,  taking 
with  him  only  his  armorbearer,  found  that  they  could  be 
approached  from  the  mountain  side,  and  the  test  was,  when 
he  came  within  sight  and  hearing  of  the  Philistines  if  they 
said,  ''Come  up  to  us,"  instead  of  "  "Remain  where  you 
are  and  we  will  come  up  to  you,"  that  was  to  be  God's  sign 
that  he  should  make  the  fight.  Hence  he  and  his  armor- 
bearer  alone  commenced  the  fight,  killing  twenty  of  the 
enemy.  They  fell  into  a  panic,  supposing  a  mighty  army 
to  be  behind  these  two  men,  and  as  their  army  was  composed 
of  troops  from  several  nations,  these  in  the  confusion  began 
to  fight  each  other.  Moreover,  a  large  number  of  Hebrews, 
who  had  hidden  in  the  caves  of  the  mountain,  came  out  and 


THE  PASSING  OF  SAUL  75 

joined  in  the  attack  on  the  PhiHstines,  so  that  their  whole 
army  was  in  inextricable  confusion. 

Saul,  from  his  lookout,  perceiving  the  confusion  in  the 
PhiHstine  army  and  hearing  the  sound  of  battle,  and  still 
wishing  to  be  guided  by  Jehovah,  turned  to  the  high  priest 
present  with  his  men,  saying,  ''Bring  hither  the  Ephod  and 
enquire  of  Jehovah  what  we  shall  do."  The  tumult  con- 
tinuing, he  then  restrained  the  priest  before  he  had  time  to 
give  Jehovah's  answer  through  the  Urim  and  Thummim, 
and  rushed  headlong  to  the  battle.  So,  in  no  respect  acting 
under  divine  orders,  but  on  his  own  wisdom,  he  enjoins  that 
none  shall  stop  to  taste  food  until  the  Philistine  army  is 
entirely  destroyed. 

Two  evil  results  come  from  this  rash  order.  First,  Jona- 
than being  in  the  front  of  the  battle  and  not  having  heard 
it,  under  the  fatigue  and  hunger  of  a  hard  day's  work,  sees 
a  honeycomb  in  the  rock.  He  delays  only  to  touch  the 
honeycomb  with  the  rod  in  his  hand  and  put  it  to  his  mouth, 
and  somewhat  refreshed  goes  on  in  pursuit,  thus  unwittingly 
bringing  himself  under  the  curse  of  his  father's  vow.  The 
second  evil  was  that  the  people  who  had  heard  the  com- 
mand, at  the  end  of  the  day,  famished  with  hunger,  took 
from  the  spoils  of  the  battle  and  butchered  the  animals  for 
meat,  without  complying  with  the  law,  which  forbids  an 
Israelite  to  eat  blood.  This  second  wrong  being  reported 
to  Saul,  he  seems  to  be  convinced  that  somebody  had  sinned, 
and  after  stopping  the  unlawful  method  of  eating  food,  he 
appeals  to  the  high  priest  to  determine  for  him  who  had  dis- 
obeyed his  order.  The  lot  disclosed  that  it  was  Jonathan, 
who  frankly  avowed  it.  Saul  announced  his  death  warrant, 
but  the  people  refused  to  permit  the  death  of  the  hero  who 
had  gained  them  the  battle. 

The  radical  critics  of  the  Bible  story  consider  it  a  light 
offense,  that  a  man  with  authority  as  king,  under  Saul's  hard 
conditions,  after  waiting  till  the  seventh  day  was  nearly 


76  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

ended  for  Samuel  to  come,  should  proceed  to  enquire  the 
divine  will,  apart  from  the  prophet  of  God.  To  this  we 
reply,  that,  while  all  of  these  hard  conditions  are  admitted, 
and  while  the  natural  effect  of  these  conditions  upon  any 
man  placed  under  the  responsibility  of  a  leader  is  also  ad- 
mitted, these  very  conditions  were  essential  to  the  test,  if  the 
theocratic  idea  of  the  charter  is  to  be  preserved.  It  made 
no  difference  how  hard  the  conditions,  nor  how  many  should 
desert,  nor  how  few  remained,  nor  how  strong  the  enemy, 
nor  how  formidable  their  equipments,  if  only  Jehovah  be 
with  them ;  and  it  made  no  difference  how  strong  an  army 
Saul  might  have,  nor  how  few  in  comparison  with  the 
enemy,  nor  how  much  superior  his  own  equipments  to  that 
of  the  foe,  he  was  doomed  to  failure  if  Jehovah  was  against 
him.  Therefore,  when,  through  fear  and  impatience,  he 
deliberately  violated  the  central  thought  in  the  charter  of  the 
kingdom,  it  was  well  that  the  kingdom  should  pass  to  an- 
other family,  and  not  be  perpetuated  in  his  house. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  while  God  had  withdrawn 
His  prophet  from  Saul,  there  yet  remained  two  methods  of 
ascertaining  the  divine  will :  the  one  employed  by  Jonathan 
by  asking  a  sign  from  God,  the  other  through  the  high  priest 
and  the  Ephod.  In  a  wavering  kind  of  way,  Saul  clings  to 
the  second  method.  He  still  on  occasion  seeks  the  mind  of 
Jehovah  through  the  high  priest,  but  never  unless  he  is  in 
extremity.  You  must  distinguish  between  the  two  tests  of 
Saul.  The  first  test  which  we  have  considered,  settled  the 
question  of  the  dynasty  alone;  the  next  test  to  be  considered 
in  the  next  chapter,  settles  the  question  personally  for  Saul, 
as  to  whether  he  is  to  remain  king. 

The  last  paragraph  of  chap.  14 :  47-52  is  a  generic  account 
of  Saul's  reign,  naming  his  various  wars  waged  victoriously, 
his  family  relations,  and  reciting  two  facts  characteristic  of 
his  reign,  namely,  (i)  that  sore  war  with  the  Philistines  pre- 
vailed all  his  days;  (2)  all  through  his  reign  he  was  accus- 


THE  PASSING  OF  SAUL  77 

tomed  to  add  valiant  men  of  whatever  nation,  to  his  body- 
guard. But  this  custom  of  Saul's  was  not  peculiar  to  him. 
David  followed  his  example,  and  hundreds  of  monarchs 
since  his  time,  some  of  them  limiting  altogether  to  for- 
eigners, as  the  Janizaries  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey; the  Scot- 
tish Archers,  the  Swiss  Guard,  and  the  Irish  Brigade  of 
French  Kings,  the  Italian  Corps  of  Charles  of  Burgundy, 
the  famous  Potsdam  giants  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  and 
many  others. 

This  summary  of  Saul's  family  omits  the  mention  of  Riz- 
pah,  Saul's  concubine,  his  two  children  by  her,  and  his 
grandchildren,  sons  of  Jonathan  and  Michal.  By  way  of 
anticipation  of  the  history,  and  to  show  that  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children,  and  further  to  show 
that  in  a  great  man's  downfall  many  are  dragged  down  with 
him,  let  us  notice  the  tragic  fate  of  the  various  members 
of  Saul's  family.  Abner,  Saul's  cousin  and  general,  was 
murdered  by  Joab.  Saul  himself,  with  three  of  the  four 
sons  by  his  wife,  including  the  heroic  Jonathan,  perished  in 
battle  with  the  Philistines.  His  fourth  son  by  his  wife  was 
assassinated ;  his  two  sons  by  his  concubine  Rizpah,  and  the 
five  sons  of  his  daughter  Michal,  born  after  she  was  taken 
from  David,  were  all  hanged  to  appease  one  of  Saul's  sins ; 
Jonathan's  son  was  crippled  by  his  nurse,  and  afterwards 
defrauded  of  half  his  inheritance. 

Note  the  text  for  a  practical  sermon  in  this  section,  Saul's 
words,  "I  forced  myself,"  13: 12. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  real  difficulties,  puzzling  to  a  Bible  student,  do  we  find 
in  I  Samuel  13  and  14? 

2.  State  the  principal  text-difficulties,  with  an  explanation  of  each. 

3.  What  difficulty  in  determining  the  order  of  events  ? 

4.  What  the  difficulty  in  determining  the  duration  of  Saul's  reign  ? 

5.  What  other  line  of  interpretation,  as  to  order  of  events,  is 
advocated  by  mighty  minds,  including  Edersheim? 

6.  Who  was  the  hero  of  this  war  with  the  Philistines? 


78  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

7.  State  in  order  the  events,  leading  up  to  Saul's  failure  under  the 
first  test  to  which  he  was  subjected. 

8.  What  was  the  penalty  of  Saul's  failure  in  this  test? 

9.  State  the  events  after  this  failure  of  Saul. 

10.  What  was  Saul's  part  in  the  battle? 

11.  What  have  radical  critics  of  the  Bible  story  to  say  against  the 
Divine  procedure  in  this  part  of  the  history? 

12.  What  is  your  reply  to  this  ? 

13.  What  interesting  fact  must  yet  be  noted  from  this  connection? 

14.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  last  paragraph  of  chapter  14:  47 :  52? 

15.  Was  this  custom  of  Saul's  peculiar  to  him? 

16.  Is  this  summary  a  full  account  of  Sau.'s  family? 

17.^  By  the  way  of  anticipation  of  the  history,  and  to  show  that 
the  sins  of  the  fathers  are  visited  upon  the  children,  and  further  to 
show  that  in  a  great  man's  downfall  many  are  drawn  down  with  him, 
state  the  tragic  fate  of  the  various  members  of  Saul's  family. 

18.    What  text  for  a  practical  sermon  in  this  section? 


IX 

SAUL'S  UNPARDONABLE  SIN,  AND  ITS  PENALTY 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  79,  80. 

IT  is  needful  to  devote  an  extended  discussion  to  this  one 
chapter — I  Sam.  15.  The  matters  to  be  considered  are 
stern,  awful,  deep  and  far-reaching,  involving  doctrines 
concerning  the  sovereignty  and  supremacy  of  God  over  na- 
tions and  rulers,  and  His  judicial  administration  in  irre- 
versible punitive  judgments. 

It  is  a  caricature  of  God,  divesting  Him  of  holiness  and 
justice,  which  represents  Him  as  merciful  only. 

There  is  widely  prevalent  today  a  weak,  sickly  sentimen- 
talism,  which  revolts  at  any  view  of  the  divine  character 
other  than  His  compassion,  which  divests  sin  of  demerit  and 
makes  all  punishment  mere  temporary  chastisement  and 
remediable.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  voiced  the  sentiment  in 
his  proposition:  "All  punishment  is  remediable."  The  sen- 
timent developed  into  a  probation  after  death,  and  a  purifi- 
cation by  the  fires  of  purgatory  equal  in  atoning  and  cleans- 
ing power  to  the  blood  of  Christ.  Such  sentimentalists  find 
I  Sam.  15  a  nut  as  hard  to  crack  as  our  Lord's  own  teaching 
concerning  His  final  judgment  and  the  eternity  of  punish- 
ment. Four  passages  serve  well  as  an  introduction  to  this 
chapter : 

I.  Jehovah's  own  declaration  of  His  character  and  attri- 
butes to  Moses,  Ex.  34 : 6-8 :  "And  Jehovah  passed  by  be- 
fore him,  and  proclaimed,  Jehovah,  Jehovah,  a  God  merciful 
and  gracious,  slow  to  anger,  and  abundant  in  loving  kind- 
ness and  truth ;  keeping  loving  kindness  for  thousands,  f or- 

79 


80  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

giving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin;  and  that  will  by 
no  means  clear  the  guilty,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  children's  children,  upon  the 
third  and  upon  the  fourth  generation." 

2.  God's  taking  away  from  Nebuchadnezzar  the  heart  of 
a  man  and  giving  him  the  heart  of  a  beast  "till  thou  know 
that  the  Most  High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men,  and 
giveth  it  to  whomsoever  He  will,"  Dan.  4 :  25. 

3.  Paul's  teaching  on  Mars'  Hill  in  Athens  concerning 
God  as  the  only  object  of  worship  and  His  government  of 
nations.  Acts  17:22-28. 

4.  Our  Lord's  declaration  to  the  woman  of  Samaria, 
that  God  is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  wor- 
ship in  spirit  and  truth,  John  4 :  23,  24. 

The  first  great  doctrine  involved  is  that  Jehovah  in  His 
sovereignty  over  a  nation  may  blot  it  out,  root  and  branch, 
when  the  measure  of  its  iniquity  is  full.  We  have  already 
found  examples  of  this  law  in  the  case  of  the  Canaanite 
nations  who  had  left  the  territory  assigned  to  them  as  chil- 
dren of  Ham  when  the  earth  was  divided,  and  occupied  the 
territory  divinely  allotted  to  the  children  of  Abraham,  but 
even  Israel  was  held  back  from  the  land  until  the  measure 
of  the  iniquities  of  these  nations  had  become  full.  We  have 
now  to  find  in  the  story  of  Amalek  the  fitness  of  the  appli- 
cation of  the  doctrine  to  them. 

It  is  possible  but  not  probable  that  they  were  the  children 
of  that  Amalek  named  as  a  descendant  of  Esau  in  Gen. 
26:12,  16  and  I  Chron.  1:36.  If  so,  they  are  out  of  the 
territory  of  Edom  (Esau)  and  ranging  as  a  predatory  tribe 
over  all  the  Negeb,  or  South  Country,  expressly  allotted  to 
Israel.  Without  provocation  they  desperately  assaulted 
Israel  on  the  approach  to  Sinai  in  the  battle  of  Rephidim,  so 
graphically  described  in  Ex.  17:8-15,  on  which  occasion 
their  doom  was  announced  by  Jehovah :  "I  will  utterly  blot 
out  the  remembrance  of  Amalek  from  under  Heaven.  .  .  . 


SAUL'S  UNPARDONABLE  SIN  81 

Jehovah  will  have  war  with  Amalek  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration." When  Israel  had  sinned  at  Kadesh  they  combined 
with  the  Canaanites  to  inflict  a  defeat  on  it.  Again,  in  the 
time  of  the  judges  they  combined  with  the  Midianites  to 
destroy  Israel,  Judges  3 :  12,  13.  Moses,  in  one  of  his  great 
farewell  addresses,  reminds  Israel  of  the  evils  done  by 
Amalek,  and  recalls  the  doom  pronounced  at  Rephidim,  and 
urges  Israel  to  execute  Jehovah's  will  when  they  are  estab- 
lished in  the  land,  Deut.  25: 17-19. 

We  find  in  far  later  times  the  last  Amalekite  known  in 
history,  Haman  at  the  Persian  court,  seeking  the  destruction 
of  captive  Israel  (Esther  3  to  8),  and  see  him  hanged  on 
the  gibbet  erected  for  Mordecai.  And  now,  as  Saul  is  vic- 
torious over  all  his  enemies,  Samuel,  as  God's  prophet,  de- 
mands the  execution  of  the  long-pending  and  richly  deserved 
doom.  From  the  beginning  and  all  along  they  have  sought 
with  persistent  and  incorrigible  malice  to  thwart  God's  pur-' 
pose  to  establish  a  nation  as  the  custodian  of  His  oracles, 
and  through  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be 
blessed.  Amalek  must  perish  or  the  world  cannot  be  saved. 
It  was  not  a  mere  political  necessity,  as  voiced  by  Cato: 
"Carthage  must  be  destroyed  or  Rome  will  perish."  It  was 
a  spiritual  necessity  involving  the  only  hope  to  all  nations. 

The  second  doctrine  involved  is  that  the  instrument  by 
which  such  a  ban  is  executed  must  consider  the  doomed 
nation  and  all  its  property  as  "devoted  to  Jehovah  for  de- 
struction," and  hence  no  part  of  the  spoils  must  be  used  to 
aggrandize  the  executor,  or  for  offerings  on  Jehovah's  altar 
— they  are  "devoted."  And  it  is  this  very  feature  which 
divests  the  executor  of  all  moral  responsibility.  He  is  merely 
God's  sheriff  executing  a  judicial  sentence,  and  hence  must 
act  without  private  malice,  vanity  or  greed.  The  terrible 
case  of  Achan  when  Jericho  was  "devoted"  was  well  known 
to  Saul,  and  should  have  admonished  him. 

In  later  Jewish  history,  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  executioner 


82  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

of  the  divine  will  against  Jerusalem,  is  called  "God's  Axe," 
and  when  the  axe  presumed  to  attribute  to  its  own  prowess 
the  defeat  of  Israel,  God  humbles  him  as  He  did  Saul;  and 
when  his  successor,  Belshazzar,  blasphemously  misuses  the 
sacred  vessels  of  the  detroyed  temple,  then  it  is  that  a  hand 
appeared  and  wrote  on  the  wall,  ''Mene,  Mene,  Tekel, 
Upharsin,"  and  that  night  Belshazzar  died  and  Babylon  fell. 

The  third  doctrine  involved  is  the  discrimination  in  Jeho- 
vah's moral  judgments,  not  paralleled  in  natural  calamities 
as  earthquakes,  volcanic  eruptions  and  pestilences. 

Jehovah's  discriminating  justice  appears  in  this  destruc- 
tion of  Amalek  by  the  precaution  taken  to  avert  from  the 
Kenites  dwelling -with  them,  the  doom  of  Amalek.  These 
Kenites  were  descendants  of  Hobab,  that  brother-in-law  of 
Moses  who  accepted  the  invitation  of  Moses :  ''We  are  going 
to  a  land  which  the  Lord  our  God  has  promised  us.  Come 
and  go  thou  with  us,  and  we  will  do  thee  good."  So  they 
went  with  Israel  and  shared  the  prosperity  promised,  and 
were  always  friendly  and  helpful,  and  always  sheltered  from 
the  wrath  of  Israel's  enemies.  Jael,  who  slew  Sisera,  was  of 
this  people. 

This  sifting  of  the  good  from  the  bad  before  the  final 
doom  falls  on  the  wicked,  is  richly  illustrated  in  the  saving 
of  Noah  from  the  doom  of  the  world,  and  reminds  us  of  the 
great  intercession  of  Abraham,  when  Sodom  was  doomed 
and  Lot  rescued :  "Wilt  thou  destroy  the  righteous  with  the 
wicked?  .  .  .  Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?" 
Gen.  8:23-33.  It  appears  in  the  light  on  Goshen  while 
Egypt  was  in  darkness,  and  in  all  the  other  discriminating 
plagues. 

The  same  principle  of  discrimination  in  divine  justice  is 
seen  in  the  parable  of  the  tares  (Matthew  13 :  24-30),  in  the 
separation  at  the  great  judgment  announced  by  our  Lord, 
Matt.  15  :  31-34.  In  the  same  discourse,  our  Lord  had  given 
to  the  disciples  a  sign,  by  observing  which  they  fled  to  Pella 


SAUL'S  UNPARDONABLE  SIN  83 

and  escaped  the  doom  of  Jerusalem  executed  by  Titus. 
Peter,  referring  to  two  notable  instances  of  this  discrimina- 
tion, expresses  the  thought  thus :  "The  Lord  knoweth  how 
to  deliver  the  godly  out  of  temptation,  and  to  keep  the  un- 
righteous under  punishment  unto  the  day  of  judgment,"  II 
Peter  2:9.  In  the  same  way,  John,  in  Revelation,  before 
the  doom  falls  on  the  spiritual  Babylon,  says,  "Come  out  of 
her,  my  people,  that  ye  be  not  partakers  of  her  sins,  and  that 
ye  receive  not  her  plagues,"  Rev.  18:4.  So  the  Kenites, 
when  warned,  quickly  withdrew  from  Amalek  and  escaped 
its  doom. 

To  lead  up  to  the  next  doctrine,  let  us  glance  at  the  terms 
of  Saul's  commission  and  the  fidelity  of  its  execution.  The 
commission  runs :  "And  Samuel  said  unto  Saul,  Jehovah 
sent  me  to  anoint  thee  to  be  king  over  His  people,  over 
Israel:  now  therefore  hearken  thou  unto  the  voice  of  the 
words  of  Jehovah.  Thus  saith  Jehovah  of  hosts,  I  have 
marked  that  which  Amalek  did  to  Israel,  how  he  set  himself 
against  him  in  the  way,  when  he  came  up  out  of  Egypt. 
Now  go  and  smite  Amalek,  and  utterly  destroy  all  that  they 
have,  and  spare  them  not ;  but  slay  both  man  and  woman, 
infant  and  suckling,  ox  and  sheep,  camel  and  ass.  And  Saul 
summoned  the  people,  and  numbered  them  in  Telaim,  two 
hundred  thousand  footmen  and  ten  thousand  men  of  Judah," 
I  Sam.  15:  1-4.  Thus  commissioned  by  Samuel,  Saul  sum- 
mons all  the  national  militia,  210,000  strong,  and  smote 
Amalek  from  Havilah  in  the  South  Country  unto  the  boun- 
dary of  Egypt.  It  was  a  hard,  desert  campaign  against  a 
mobile,  nomad  people,  and  resulted  in  a  marvelous  and 
sweeping  victory.  But  the  record  closes  thus :  "But  Saul 
and  the  people  spared  Agag,  and  the  best  of  the  sheep,  and 
of  the  oxen,  and  of  the  fatlings,  and  the  lambs,  and  all  that 
was  good,  and  would  not  utterly  destroy  them ;  but  every- 
thing that  was  vile  and  refuse,  that  they  destroyed  utterly," 
I  Sam.  15:9.     Saul  was  so  elated  at  its  thoroughness  and 


84  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

extent  that  he  erected  a  memorial  of  his  prowess.  He  was 
filled  with  self-complacency.  But  God  seeth  not  as  man 
seeth,  nor  judgeth  as  man  judgeth.  In  His  eyes  Saul  had 
committed  a  presumptuous  and  unpardonable  sin.  To  make 
this  manifest,  we  turn  from  Saul  in  his  triumph  to  a  differ- 
ent scene,  one  of  the  most  touching  in  all  history. 


THE  INTERVIEW  BETWEEN  JEHOVAH  AND  SAMUEL 

I  Sam.  15  :io,  11 :  "Then  came  the  word  of  Jehovah  unto 
Samuel,  saying.  It  repenteth  me  that  I  have  set  up  Saul  to  be 
king;  for  he  is  turned  back  from  following  me,  and  hath 
not  performed  my  commandments.  And  Samuel  was  wroth ; 
and  he  cried  unto  Jehovah  all  night."  In  this  interview  is 
developed  the  doctrine  of  the  unpardonable  sin,  so  often 
referred  to  in  both  Testaments. 

The  sin  of  Saul  may  be  thus  analyzed : 

1.  Just  what  he  did  is  thus  stated,  I  Sam.  15:9. 

2.  It  was  a  wilful  sin  against  light  and  knowledge,  for  it 
violated  the  clearly  expressed  command  of  Jehovah,  15:3: 
"Now  go  and  smite  Amalek,  and  utterly  destroy  all  that 
they  have,  and  spare  them  not,  but  slay  both  man  and 
woman,  infant  and  suckling,  ox  and  sheep,  camel  and  ass." 

3.  It  violated  the  central  provision  of  the  kingdom  char- 
ter that  the  earthly  king  was  only  the  viceroy  of  the  heavenly 
King. 

4.  It  was  a  presumptuous  sin,  being  against  the  Holy 
Spirit,  whose  power  resting  on  Saul  was  symbolized  by  his 
anointing,  and  which  alone  qualified  him  to  be  king  and  win 
victory. 

5.  It  was  rebellion,  and  classed  with  the  capital  sins  of 
witchcraft  and  idolatry,  which  Saul  himself  punished  with 
death. 

6.  It  was  blasphemous,  in  that  it  mingled  human  self- 
will,  vanity  and  greed  with  a  bloody  execution  whose  sole 


SAUL'S  UNPARDONABLE  SIN  85 

justification  was  obedience  to  Jehovah's  express  sentence  as 
Supreme  Judge,  without  the  human  motives  of  vanity,  gain 
or  malice. 

7.  It  was  an  eternal  sin,  evidenced  by  Jehovah's  refusal 
to  hear  Samuel's  all-night  intercession,  by  Jehovah's  rebuke 
to  Samuel  for  mourning  for  Saul,  by  the  instant  and  per- 
manent withdrawal  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  the  sending  in- 
stead an  evil  spirit  to  guide  him  to  ruin,  by  the  permanent 
separation  of  the  prophet  from  him,  by  refusing  to  ever 
again  communicate  with  him  in  any  other  way,  and  finally 
by  withdrawing  from  him  all  that  grace  by  which  alone  a 
man  can  become  penitent.  One  may  have  remorse  without 
the  Spirit,  but  he  cannot  become  penitent  without  the  Spirit. 

For  the  complete  separation  between  Saul  and  Samuel, 
see  I  Sam.  16:  i,  for  the  permanent  departure  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  succeeded  by  an  evil  spirit,  see  I  Sam.  16 :  14 ;  for 
God's  refusal  to  communicate  with  Saul  any  more  in  any 
way,  see  I  Sam.  28:6;  to  show  that  God's  refusal  to  hear 
intercession  for  a  sin  is  a  mark  of  its  unpardonable  charac- 
ter, see  Jeremiah's  reference,  Jer.  15: 15,  and  compare  this 
with  I  John  5:  16:  "If  any  man  see  his  brother  sinning  a 
sin  not  unto  death,  he  shall  ask,  and  God  will  give  him  life 
for  them  that  sin  not  unto  death.  There  is  a  sin  unto  death ; 
not  concerning  this  do  I  say  that  he  should  make  request." 

Other  New  Testament  correspondences  are  shown  in  the 
words  of  our  Lord :  "He  that  blasphemeth  against  the  Holy 
Ghost  committeth  an  eternal  sin.  It  hath  never  forgiveness, 
neither  in  this  world  nor  in  the  world  to  come."  The 
declaration  in  Hebrews  10:26-29:  "If  we  sin  wilfully  after 
that  we  have  received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there 
remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins,  but  a  certain  fearful 
expectation  of  judgment.  ...  A  man  that  hath  set  at  naught 
Moses'  law  dieth  without  compassion  on  the  word  of  two 
or  three  witnesses:  Of  how  much  sorer  punishment,  think 
ye,  shall  he  be  judged  worthy,  (i)  who  hath  trodden  under 


86  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

foot  the  Son  of  God,  (2)  and  counted  the  blood  of  the  cove- 
nant wherewith  he  was  sanctified  an  unholy  thing,  and  (3) 
hath  done  despite  unto  the  Spirit  of  Grace?"  You  see  there 
is  sin  against  the  Father,  sin  against  the  Son,  and  sin  against 
the  Holy  Spirit;  the  first  two  pardonable,  the  last  never, 
doing  despite  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  is  what  Saul  did, 
and  hence  the  Spirit  was  permanently  withdrawn  from  him. 

We  come  now  to  the  sad,  eventful  and  last  interview 
between  Saul  and  Samuel.  It  is  evident  from  this  interview 
that  Saul  added  brazen  lying  and  hypocrisy  to  his  rebellion. 
He  first  claims  that  he  has  fully  obeyed  Jehovah,  even  when 
the  bleating  sheep  and  lowing  herds  are  within  sight  and 
sound  to  convict  him.  He  then  seeks  to  shift  the  blame  and 
responsibility  upon  the  people,  and  finally  he  attributes  a 
pious  motive  to  the  sparing  of  the  sheep  and  oxen — to  sac- 
rifice on  God's  altar. 

Samuel's  tenderness  of  heart  toward  Saul  is  evinced  in 
his  heartbreaking  grief  when  Jehovah  announces  that  Saul 
is  lost.  He  not  only  spends  a  whole  night  in  earnest  but 
fruitless  prayer  that  God  would  forgive  Saul,  but  even  after 
he  knows  that  the  punishment  denounced  on  Saul  is  irre- 
vocable he  still  mourns  for  him ;  but  although  his  prayers  in 
behalf  of  Saul  are  denied,  and  though  it  is  a  bitter  cross  to 
announce  to  Saul  God's  stern  will,  yet  he  strictly  obeys,  and 
in  his  interview  with  Saul  shows  more  concern  for  God's 
honor  than  for  his  own  grief. 

We  come  to  our  next  great  doctrine  in  Samuel's  reply  to 
Saul  as  expressed  in  verse  22 :  "Hath  Jehovah  as  great  de- 
light in  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices,  as  in  obeying  the  voice 
of  Jehovah?  Behold,  to  obey  is  better  than  sacrifice,  and  to 
hearken  then  the  fat  of  rams."  The  doctrine  here  is  not; 
against  the  use  of  the  God-appointed  sacrifices,  but  it  shows 
that  mere  external  conformity  with  the  law  of  types  as 
embodied  in  sacrifices,  and  the  observance  of  rituals  without 
faith  and  the  spirit  of  true  worship,  is  as  empty  as  a  blasted 


SAUL'S  UNPARDONABLE  SIN  87 

nut.  The  doctrine  does  not  undervalue  the  form  of  godli- 
ness, but  it  does  show  the  superiority  of  the  power  of  godli- 
ness. The  truth  lies,  not  in  denying  the  need  of  the  form, 
but  in  relying  upon  the  form  only.  This  doctrine  magnifies 
the  thing  signified  above  the  sign,  and  magnifies  the  spirit 
above  the  letter.  The  tendency  of  the  priesthood — the  types 
and  the  rituals — throughout  the  monarchy  was  a  reliance 
upon  mere  empty  ceremonies.  It  was  the  mission  of  the 
prophets  to  counteract  this,  as  you  will  find  by  carefully 
reading  the  following  passages :  Psalms  40 : 6-8 ;  51 :  16,  17 ; 
Isaiah  i:  11-15;  Jeremiah  J\22,  23;  Hosea  6\6,  and  Micah 
6 : 6-8.  These  passages  should  be  carefully  studied  in  their 
context,  otherwise  we  will  never  understand  the  difference 
in  the  spirit  of  the  prophetic  teaching  as  contrasted  with  the 
letter  of  the  priestly  teaching. 

From  these  prophetic  declarations  the  radical  critics  have 
drawn  the  irrational  and  untenable  conclusion  that  the  tes- 
timony of  the  prophets  shows  that  the  Levitical  part  of  the 
Mosaic  law  was  a  late  addition,  and  particularly  they  stress 
the  declaration  in  Jer.  7 :  22,  23.  It  is  easy  to  answer  their 
criticism  upon  all  the  other  passages  cited,  but  not  so  easy  to 
reply  to  the  Jeremiah  passage.  You  might  well  say  with 
reference  to  that  passage  that  it  was  literally  fulfilled  in 
the  days  of  the  wilderness  wandering  after  Israel's  sin  at 
Kadesh.  For  thirty-eight  years,  they  being  under  excom- 
munication, God  did  not  require  them  to  comply  with  the 
forms  of  His  laws.  They  did  not  observe  the  requirements 
of  the  tabernacle  worship;  they  did  not  circumcise  their  chil- 
dren, the  thought  in  Jeremiah  being  that  aliens  without  faith 
in  the  thing  signified  are  not  commanded  to  observe  the 
form. 

We  come  to  another  great  doctrine  drawn  from  Saufs 
confession,  "I  have  sinned."  The  doctrine  is  that  a  mere 
confession  in  words  is  not  a  proof  of  grace  in  the  heart.  In 
Saul's  case,  evidently  his  confession  was  extorted  by  re- 


88  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

morse  or  the  fear  of  the  consequences  made  manifest  by 
Samuel.  Indeed,  he  trembled  at  the  appalling  doom  pro- 
nounced upon  him,  but  he  never  repented  of  his  sin.  Spur- 
geon  illustrates  this  great  doctrine  by  preaching  a  famous 
sermon  entitled,  "A  Sermon  from  Seven  Texts."  There 
were  indeed  seven  texts,  but  every  one  of  them  had  the 
same  words,  *'I  have  sinned,"  only  these  words  came  from 
seven  different  men,  and  he  shows  that  when  Saul  says,  "I 
have  sinned,"  it  does  not  mean  what  it  means  when  David 
says,  "I  have  sinned,"  and  that  when  Judas  and  Balaam  say, 
**I  have  sinned,"  it  does  not  mean  what  it  means  when  the 
prodigal  says,  ''I  have  sinned."  The  author,  when  he  was 
a  pastor,  was  so  much  interested  by  this  sermon  of  Spur- 
geon's  that  he  called  the  attention  of  his  congregation  to  it, 
and  found  three  other  texts,  "I  have  sinned,"  spoken  by 
three  other  men,  making  ten  in  all,  and  called  his  sermon  "A 
Sermon  from  Ten  Texts." 

Finally  we  need  to  explain  the  apparent  discrepancy  be- 
tween what  God  says  of  himself,  "It  repenteth  me,"  in  verse 
II,  and  what  Samuel  says  of  God  in  verse  29:  ''God  is  not 
a  man  that  He  should  repent."  The  explanation  is  that 
"repent"  in  the  first  case  does  not  mean  the  same  as  "repent" 
in  the  second  case. 

Whenever  repentance  is  attributed  to  God,  it  does  not 
mean  that  He  has  changed  His  mind,  hut  that  a  sinner's 
change  of  conduct  has  necessitated  a  change  in  God's  atti- 
tude toward  the  sinner. 

The  thought  is  fully  illustrated  thus  in  Gen.  6  in  these 
words :  "And  Jehovah  saw  that  the  wickedness  of  man  was 
great  in  the  earth,  and  that  every  imagination  of  the  thoughts 
of  his  heart  was  only  evil  continually,  and  it  repented  Jeho- 
vah that  He  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  Him 
at  His  heart,  and  Jehovah  said,  I  will  destroy  man  whom  I 
have  created  from  the  face  of  the  ground." 

Here  the  repentance  attributed  to  God  expresses  His  gen- 


SAUL'S  UNPARDONABLE  SIN  89 

uine  grief  at  the  corruption  of  the  most  of  the  human  race, 
and. that  this  caused  a  change  in  His  attitude  toward  so  many 
of  the  race  as  were  thus  hopelessly  and  incorrigibly  cor- 
rupted. It  does  not  mean  absolutely  the  whole  race,  for  the 
context  shows  that  Noah  was  an  exception,  and  that  God 
did  not  repent  concerning  Noah,  but  continued  the  race  in 
him. 

We  say,  in  common  parlance,  "The  sun  rises  and  sets." 
We  do  not  mean  by  this  that  the  sun  revolves  around  the 
earth,  but  in  common  speech,  based  on  appearance,  we 
simply  mean  that  the  earth  revolving  on  its  own  axis, 
changes  its  face  to  the  sun,  with  the  result  of  alternating 
day  and  night. 

I  have  stressed  the  great  doctrines  of  this  section  because 
preachers  and  Christian  workers  will  be  continually  con- 
fronted with  weak,  sickly  and  sentimental  views  of  the  char- 
acter of  God,  of  the  demerit  of  sin  and  of  the  eternity  of 
punishment.  This  public  opinion  will  press  upon  you  to 
confine  your  preaching  to  the  infinite  compassion  and  mercy 
of  God. 

You  should,  indeed,  in  the  fullest  terms,  magnify  God's 
pity.  His  tenderness.  His  mercy.  His  long-suffering,  His  for- 
giving of  sins,  but  you  shoidd  also  stress  that  when  this 
mercy  is  despised,  when  it  is  disregarded  until  the  heart 
becomes  past  feeling,  then  come  Hell  and  eternal  punish- 
ment. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  nature  of  the  matters  in  this  discussion,  and  of  the 
doctrines  involved? 

2.  What  the  sickly  sentimentalism  even  now  prevalent  concerning 
these  doctrines  ?    Cite  a  special  case. 

3.  What  four  scriptures  might  well  serve  as  an  introduction  to  this 
discussion? 

4.  What  the  first  great  doctrine  cited  in  this  discussion? 

5.  Recite  briefly  the  story  of  the  Canaanites  and  of  the  Amalekites, 
and  show  the  fitness  of  applying  the  doctrine  to  them. 

6.  What  the  second  great  doctrine  cited  ? 

7.  What  special  instances  of  its  application? 


90  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

8.  What  the  third  great  doctrine  cited  as  arising  from  the  provision 
to  save  the  Kenites  from  the  doom  of  Amalek? 

9.  Cite  the  several  illustrations  of  this  doctrine  given. 

10.  Recite  Saul's  commission  against  Amalek,  and  his  execution 
of  it. 

11.  Contrast  Saul's  view  of  his  performance  with  God's  view  of  it. 

12.  What  the  fourth  great  doctrine,  developed  in  Jehovah's  inter- 
view with  Samuel? 

13.  Give  the  analysis  of  Saul's  sin,  showing  its  unpardonable 
character,  giving  O.  T.  proofs  and  N.  T.  correspondences  therewith. 

14.  Show  that  Samuel's  great  tenderness  of  heart  toward  Saul  did 
not  weaken  his  fidelity  to  God, 

15.  Show  how  Saul,  in  his  last  interview  with  Samuel,  added  brazen 
lying  and  hypocrisy  to  his  rebellion. 

16.  What  the  fifth  great  doctrine  found  in  Samuel's  reply  to  Saul, 
I  Sam.  15:22? 

17.  What  other  prophets  enforced  the  doctrine,  and  how  does  the 
N.  T.  endorse  the  prophets? 

18.  What  irrational  conclusions  have  the  radical  critics  drawn  from 
these  prophetical  utterances,  and  what  the  answer  to  them,  especially 
on  Jer.  7 :  22,  23  ? 

19.  What  the  sixth  great  doctrine,  drawn  from  Saul's  confession, 
"I  have  sinned?" 

20.  How  did  Spurgeon  illustrate  this  doctrine  in  a  famous  sermon? 

21.  Explain  the  apparent  discrepancy  between  what  God  says  of 
himself,  "It  repenteth  me,"  and  what  Samuel  says  of  God,  "God  is  not 
a  man  that  He  should  repent." 


DAVID   CHOSEN   AS    SAUL'S    SUCCESSOR,   AND 

HIS  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  COURT 

OF  SAUL 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  81-84 

THE  rejection  of  King  Saul  introduces  as  his  successor 
the  most  remarkable  man  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy, 
or  of  any  other  monarchy.  Apart  from  the  history 
of  David,  we  cannot  understand  the  Psalms,  and  apart  from 
the  Psalms  we  cannot  understand  the  history.  A  great 
number  of  these  Psalms,  written  by  David  himself,  reflect 
and  expound  his  own  life-experiences,  and  forecast  the  ex- 
periences of  Christian  people  of  all  subsequent  generations. 
Most  of  the  others  were  written  by  his  singers  and  their 
successors.  There  is  for  every  Psalm  an  historic  occasion 
and  background. 

Again,  apart  from  David's  history,  we  cannot  under- 
stand the  marvelous  development  of  the  Messianic  hope 
from  his  time  on.  In  like  manner,  in  his  own  time  and 
later,  the  great  prophetic  utterances  root  in  his  history,  with 
their  promises  and  foreshadowings.  Indeed,  the  proofs  of 
a  high  order  of  spiritual  life  in  the  old  dispensation,  and  of 
the  spiritual  import  of  the  Mosaic  law  are  most  abundant 
in  David's  life,  his  worship  and  the  literature  arising 
therefrom. 

To  take  away  the  history  of  David,  removes  in  an  im- 
portant sense,  the  foundation  of  the  New  Testament.  This 
connection  with  the  New  Testament  may  be  abundantly 
found  in  references  to  the  history  of  David,  and  the  expo- 

91 


92  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

sition  of  it  by  our  Lord  and  His  apostles.  Fortunately  for 
the  preachers  of  our  day,  there  is  a  rich  and  trustworthy 
literature  concerning  this  most  notable  king  of  history. 
Indeed,  in  view  of  this  literature,  so  easily  obtained,  that 
preacher  is  inexcusable  who  remains  in  ignorance  concern- 
ing David.  No  exigency  of  life,  whether  arising  from  pov- 
erty, sickness  or  any  other  cause,  can  excuse  the  preacher 
who  fails  to  study,  in  a  thorough  and  systematic  manner, 
the  life  of  David. 

The  reader  will  recall  the  books  recommended  when  we 
commenced  this  harmony ;  not  a  multitudinous  and  costly 
list  for  great  scholars,  but  a  list  for  students  of  the  English 
Bible,  all  cheap,  all  good,  all  easily  obtained,  and  it  was 
stated  at  that  time  that  when  we  came  to  the  history  of 
David,  other  books  of  like  character  would  be  named. 
Some,  indeed,  of  the  very  best  of  these  we  reserve  until 
we  come  to  the  study  of  the  Psalter.  The  preacher  who 
has  in  his. library  choice  books  on  the  law,  the  Psalter  and 
the  prophets  is  equipped  for  Old  Testament  exposition,  and 
prepared  to  undertake  the  study  of  the  New  Testament. 
Every  Sunday  School  teacher  and  every  layman  engaged 
in  any  public  activity  of  kingdom-service  should  have  these 
books.  Now  to  these  already  named,  towit:  Josephus, 
Edersheim,  Dean,  Geikie,  Stanley,  Hengstenberg,  and  to 
the  three  commentaries — Kirkpatrick  on  Samuel  in  the  Cam- 
bridge Bible,  Blakie  on  Samuel  in  the  Expositor's  Bible, 
and  Murphy  on  I  Chronicles — we  will  add  and  especially 
commend  a  little  book  entitled  ''David  King  of  Israel,"  by 
W.  M.  Taylor,  author  also  of  the  famous  book  on  the 
parables. 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  text-book  has  for  its  third 
part  of  Saul's  reign  this  appropriate  heading :  'The  Decline 
of  Saul  and  the  Rise  of  David,"  and  that  this  history  is 
found  in  I  Sam.,  chapters  i6  to  31,  supplemented  by  only 
five  passages  from  Chronicles — I  Chron.   10:1-14;  11:13, 


DAVID  CHOSEN  AS  KING  93 

14;  12:1-7;  12:16-18;  12:19-22 — only  thirty  verses  in  all. 
There  are  special  items  of  interest  touching  David,  which 
appear  in  the  various  genealogical  tables  of  both  Testaments, 
towit : 

1.  His  ancestry  is  clearly  traced  back  to  Adam,  and  his 
posterity  forward  to  our  Lord. 

2.  Twice  is  his  descent  marked  from  one  of  twins  strug- 
gling in  the  mother's  womb,  the  history  in  each  case  re- 
markable. You  will  find  the  history  in  Gen.  25:21-26  and 
38:1-30. 

3.  On  the  maternal  side  are  two  foreigners,  Rahab  the 
Canaanitess  and  Ruth  the  Moabitess,  thus  connecting  both 
David  and  our  Lord  with  the  Gentiles. 

4.  He  came  in  the  line  of  all  the  promises  from  Adam 
to  his  own  time. 

5.  He  came  in  the  royal  line  according  to  the  prophecy 
of  his  dying  ancestor,  Jacob: 

"The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah, 
Nor  the  Ruler's  staff  from  between  his  feet, 
Until  Shiloh  come ; 
And  unto  Him  shall  the  obedience  of  the  peoples  be." 

6.  His  birthplace  and  home  is  Bethlehem,  and  it  was 
the  birthplace  of  his  greater  son,  our  Lord. 

There  is  some  difficulty  in  determining  his  place  in  the 
family,  that  is,  whether  he  was  the  seventh  or  the  eighth 
son  of  Jesse.  The  scriptures  that  furnish  an  explanation  of 
statements  that  he  was  the  seventh  son  and  the  eighth  son 
are  I  Sam.  16:10,  11;  17:12;  II  Sam.  17:25;  I  Chron. 
2:15  and  27: 18.  This  section  presents  eight  sons,  of  whom 
David  is  declared  to  be  the  youngest,  and  in  the  next  chap- 
ter it  expressly  says  that  Jesse  had  eight  sons,  and  again 
affirms  that  David  was  the  youngest;  but  I  Chron.  2:15 
makes  David  the  seventh.  A  careful  examination  of  all 
these  passages  yields  this  explanation :  He  was  the  seventh 
son  of  Jesse  by  his  first  wife,  but  younger  than  another  son 


94  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

of  Jesse  Uy  his  second  wife;  therefore  he  was  the  seventh 
son  in  the  sense  meant,  and  yet  he  was  the  eighth  and  the 
youngest  son  of  Jesse. 

As  we  progress  in  the  history,  we  will  find  other  members 
of  David's  kindred  becoming  quite  prominent  in  the  history, 
and  some  of  them  adding  much  to  the  troubles  and  trage- 
dies of  his  life.  His  three  oldest  brothers  are  mentioned  in 
this  section  as  being  in  Saul's  army,  and  EHhu,  another 
brother,  when  David  organized  the  kingdom,  becomes  cap- 
tain of  the  tribe  of  Judah.  Amasa,  the  son  of  his  sister, 
Abigail,  is  a  very  prominent  figure  in  the  history,  and  with 
Abishai,  Joab  and  Asahel,  sons  of  his  sister,  Zeruiah,  have 
much  more  to  do  with  his  history.  One  of  his  uncles,  Jona- 
dab,  becomes  an  occasional  counsellor  in  his  reign,  and  one 
of  his  brothers  becomes  a  mighty  champion. 

Our  story  commences  under  the  following  conditions: 
First,  Saul,  under  two  great  tests,  has  failed  to  comply  with 
the  kingdom  charter,  losing  the  dynasty  by  the  first,  and 
his  personal  right  to  reign  by  the  second,  but  he  is  yet  king 
de  facto,  though  not  de  jure.  That  means  he  is  king  in 
fact,  but  not  in  right.  Jehovah  has  utterly  withdrawn  from 
any  communication  with  him,  and  an  evil  spirit  is  leading 
him  to  ruin.  The  Philistines  still  wage  sore  war  against 
him.  Samuel,  the  aged  prophet,  has  withdrawn  from  him, 
and  is  teaching  in  his  school  of  the  prophets  at  Ramah. 
Jehovah  has  already  announced  to  Saul,  not  only  the  loss 
of  the  throne  to  his  dynasty  and  his  personal  rejection  as 
king,  but  that  the  Lord  hath  sought  Him  a  man  after  His 
own  heart,  and  commanded  him  to  be  captain  over  His 
people;  but  so  far  there  has  been  no  designation  of  this 
man,  and  you  must  particularly  note  that  after  the  designa- 
tion his  rule  does  not  commence  until  Saul  has  wrought 
out  his  own  ruin. 

The  section  opens  with  Jehovah's  designation  of  the  man 
by  lot,  and  his  anointing  by  Samuel.     Samuel's  fear  that 


DAVID  CHOSEN  AS  KING  95 

Saul  will  kill  him  if  he  anoints  a  successor  is  assuaged  by 
Jehovah's  directions  as  to  the  method  and  purpose  of  the 
anointing.  It  is  not  the  divine  purpose  to  bring  about  a 
division  of  Israel  under  rival  kings ;  therefore  Samuel  must 
go  to  Bethlehem  to  offer  sacrifices,  which  would  not  attract 
Saul's  attention;  then  the  designation  by  lot  there,  with 
the  anointing,  are  private  acts.  The  object  of  this  is  to 
begin  the  preparation  of  David  for  the  kingly  office,  which 
he  is  not  to  assume  until  the  time  designated  by  Jehovah. 
At  no  time  while  Saul  lives  does  either  the  Spirit  impress 
David  to  assume  the  kingly  office  for  which  he  has  been 
anointed,  nor  does  David  of  his  own  motion  conspire  against 
Saul,  or  in  any  way  seek  to  weaken  his  authority.  This 
time  the  basis  of  God's  choice  is  not  physical  stature  and 
strength,  as  in  Saul's  case,  but  the  state  of  the  heart  in 
God's  sight. 

The  choice  surprises  everybody  but  God.  Neither  Samuel 
nor  the  family,  nor  David  himself  would  have  judged  as 
Jehovah  judged.  Seldom  indeed  can  parents,  brother  or 
sister  point  out  the  member  of  the  family  who  shall  become 
illustrious,  nor  does  the  illustrious  one  himself  always  an- 
ticipate his  future  honor  and  position.  A  boy  often  aspires 
to  great  things,  and  imagines  most  vividly  the  glories  that 
shall  rest  on  him  when  he  shall  have  the  world  in  a  sling, 
and  vividly  pictures  to  himself  a  home-coming  when  all  the 
other  members  of  his  family  shall  find  shelter  under  his 
wings,  and  all  the  neighbors  who  had  failed  to  recognize 
his  budding  genius  shall  stand  with  mouths  agape,  while 
salvos  of  artillery,  unfurled  banners,  flower-decked  streets 
proclaim  his  honor,  while  bands  are  playing  "See,  the  Con- 
quering Hero  Comes !"  But  time,  the  great  revealer,  shows 
these  egotistical  fancies  to  be  as  "the  airy  nothings"  of  a 
dream. 

A  boy  in  East  Texas  offered  to  take  me  from  one  preach- 
ing place  to  another,  in  order,  as  he  stated,  to  tell  me  that 


96  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

he  would  be  the  governor  of  Texas,  but  I  haven't  heard 
from  him  since.  Shakespeare  says,  "Some  men  are  born 
great;  some  achieve  greatness,  and  some  have  greatness 
thrust  upon  them,"  but  being  born  to  a  high  honor,  or 
having  it  thrust  upon  you,  will  only  add  to  your  unfitness 
and  make  your  failure  more  conspicuous,  if  you  have  not 
the  character  and  training  to  wear  it  well. 

It  may  be  that  some  one  of  my  readers,  in  casting  his 
horoscope,  has  seen  himself  a  preacher  cutting  a  wide  swath, 
salary  of  $10,000  a  year,  no  building  able  to  hold  his  congre- 
gations, and  glaring  headlines  in  the  great  dailies  announc- 
ing that  he  is  "shaking  the  foundations  of  hell  and  opening 
the  portals  of  Heaven." 

Some  of  my  admiring  friends,  judging  from  my  great 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  wars,  predicted  that  I  would  at 
least  become  a  corps  commander,  should  a  war  arise  in  my 
time.  A  war  came  and  left  me  a  high  private,  while  only 
such  "little"  men  as  Lee,  Jackson,  Stuart  and  the  Johnsons 
on  one  side,  and  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan  and  Thomas 
on  the  other  side,  wrote  their  names  in  the  niches  of  the 
temple  of  fame — but  these  "little"  men  were  all  trained  at 
West  Point. 

The  history  we  are  studying  makes  it  evident  that  Saul 
had  neither  the  character  nor  the  training  to  become  a  great 
ruler,  but  David  had  both.  Woe  to  any  of  us  who  under- 
estimate the  knowledge  of  these  three  things:  (i)  a  right 
state  of  heart  toward  God,  (2)  the  discipline  of  preparation 
and  training,  and  (3)  dependence  on  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

Only  men  of  great  heart,  great  preparation  and  great 
power  with  God  achieve  anything  worth  while  in  the 
ministry. 

David's  early  life  in  the  fields  and  valleys  and  mountains, 
with  its  isolation  and  loneliness  given  to  meditation  and 
reflection,  put  him  near  to  nature's  heart  and  impressed 


DAVID  CHOSEN  AS  KING  97 

him  with  the  fact  that  an  individual  man  is  insignificant  in 
the  scheme  of  God's  great  universe,  and  hence  taught  him 
to  sing:  "When  I  consider  thy  heavens,  the  work  of  thy 
fingers,  the  moon  and  the  stars,  which  thou  hast  ordained; 
what  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of 
man  that  thou  visitest  him?"  and  also  taught  him  to  sing, 
"The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God ;  and  the  firmament 
showeth  His  handiwork.  Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech, 
and  night  unto  night  showeth  knowledge."  His  occupation 
gave  him  the  shepherd's  heart,  and  evoked  that  sweetest  of 
all  hymns:  "The  Lord  is  my  shepherd,  I  shall  not  want," 
and  that  same  shepherd  office  called  out  high  courage  that 
made  him  triumph  in  solitary  grapple  with  the  lion  and  the 
bear  that  would  prey  upon  his  flock,  and  gave  him  a  match- 
less skill  with  the  sling  that  would  one  day  smite  down  a 
boasting  giant. 

The  hardships  of  this  calling  in  such  a  field  gave  him 
toughness  of  fibre  and  power  of  endurance.  He  could  bear 
hunger  and  cold  and  heat  without  fainting.  He  himself 
says  that  he  became  as  "fleet  of  foot  as  a  wild  gazelle,"  and 
could  conquer  a  goat  in  climbing  a  mountain.  His  asso- 
ciation with  the  school  of  the  prophets  gave  him  devotion 
of  spirit,  and  developed  that  natural  cunning  of  fingers  that 
struck  the  strings  of  a  harp  in  a  way  never  equalled  by 
any  other  bard.  His  music  would  not  only  charm  a  serpent, 
soothe  a  savage  breast,  drive  away  melancholy,  but  would 
dispossess  the  devil,  and  above  all  things,  with  his  anoint- 
ing, the  Spirit  came  upon  him,  and  was  never  taken  away 
from  him.  Only  once  he  let  Satan  prompt  him  to  do  a 
disastrous  thing,  and  once  only  through  sin  was  he  con- 
strained to  pray,  "Take  not  thy  Holy  Spirit  from  me,  and 
renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 

Apart  from  this  early  life-preparation,  before  he  appears 
in  public  and  begins  to  reign  so  long  and  so  well,  there 
awaits  him  a  novitiate  of  training  under  sufferings  and  per- 


98  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

secutions  such  as  seldom  fall  to  the  lot  of  man.  His  per- 
sonal appearance  is  described  in  chapter  16:12  and  17:2, 
as  ruddy  of  face,  brilliant  of  eye,  very  handsome  in  his 
person.  We  are  able  to  distinguish  the  Spirit's  power  that 
came  on  David  from  the  same  power  on  Saul.  In  Saul's 
case,  it  was  only  occasional,  and  finally  utterly  withdrawn; 
in  David's  case,  the  "Spirit  abode  on  him  from  that  day 
forward."  An  old  writer  thus  distinguishes  between  a 
sinner  and  a  saint :  "The  Spirit  visits  a  sinner,  but  dwells 
with  a  saint ;  and  conversely,  Satan  visits  a  saint,  but  dwells 
with  a  sinner."      A  very  fine  thought. 

Here  we  come  upon  a  controversy :  What  was  the  occa- 
sion of  David's  first  introduction  to  the  court  of  Saul? 
Was  it  the  harp-playing  of  16:  14-23,  or  was  it  the  slaying 
of  Goliath  and  the  consequent  victory,  as  told  in  chapter 
17?  If  the  first,  how  do  you  account  for  Saul's  ignorance 
of  David  when  he  appears  on  the  second  occasion,  17 :  55"5^» 
that  is,  Saul  asking  Abner,  "Who  is  this  young  stripling?" 
and  Abner  saying,  "I  don't  know."  They  don't  seem  to 
have  ever  heard  of  him.  Some  critics  contend  that  I  Sam. 
16  and  17  are  from  diflferent  historic  sources,  and  that  they 
contradict  each  other  flatly  and  irreconcilably  in  giving  the 
occasion  of  David's  introduction  to  the  court  of  Saul.  More- 
over, they  say  that  if  the  harp-playing  precedes  the  other, 
then  the  ignorance  of  not  only  Saul  himself,  but  of  the 
whole  court  concerning  David  and  his  father,  is  inexpHcable, 
especially  as  in  the  nature  of  the  case  there  could  be  no 
great  interval  of  time  between  the  two  events,  since  David 
is,  in  the  second,  twice  called  a  "stripling." 

The  possibility  of  two  sources  is  conceded,  but  not  the 
certainty  of  it.  It  is  the  custom  of  inspired  writers  to 
repeat  on  new  occasions  enough  of  the  past  history  to  make 
clear  the  context.  The  court  of  Saul  was  ignorant  of  David 
and  his  family  on  both  occasions.  The  first  time,  only  one 
of  the  servants  knows  anything  about  David  and  his  family, 


DAVID  CHOSEN  AS  KING  99 

and  his  skill  of  song  and  speech,  and  Jehovah's  presence 
with  him.  The  servant's  word  about  David  and  his  family 
would  make  no  great  or  lasting  impression  on  Saul  and  his 
court.  The  chief  thing  with  them  was  the  curing  of  Saul, 
and  when  after  several  harp-play ings,  the  cure  seems  per- 
manent, the  human  helper  returns  to  the  care  of  his  flocks 
and  is  swiftly  forgotten.  You  will  understand  their  igno- 
rance from  the  fact  that  Samuel's  anointing  of  David  was 
not  in  the  public  eye,  but  in  private,  and  the  spiritual  en- 
dowment that  followed  would  be  known  only  by  a  few 
neighbors  having  knowledge  of  David's  shepherd  life ;  none 
of  it  was  known  abroad.  His  ministrations  and  harp-play- 
ing were  in  the  sick-room  and  not  before  the  court.  More- 
over, Saul  himself,  while  possessed  of  an  evil  spirit,  suffered 
from  mental  aberration,  which  naturally  impaired  his  mem- 
ory, and  while  the  record  of  the  harp-playing  shows  that 
Saul  loved  the  healer,  we  all  know  by  experience  how  grate- 
ful to  the  physician  is  every  patient  in  the  moment  of  relief, 
but  if  we  continue  well,  how  easily  the  physician  passes  out 
of  our  memory  and  life,  until  we  get  sick  again.  It  is 
somewhat  like  the  old  proverb: 

"When  the  devil  is  sick, 

The  devil  a  saint  would  be ; 
When  the  devil  is  well, 
The  devil  a  saint  is  he  !" 

Solomon  says  in  his  penitential  book,  "There  is  no  re- 
membrance of  former  generations''  Eccles.  i:ii.  But 
there  is  no  need  to  quote  this  general  reflection  of  Solomon, 
since  one  of  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  human 
courts  is  that  presence  only  keeps  one  in  mind.  Absence 
obliterates  you  from  the  memory  of  the  great,  to  whom 
yesterday  is  a  "long  time  ago,"  and  with  whom  the  new 
man  or  the  new  event  fills  all  the  vision.  As  an  illustration 
of  the  characteristic  of  kings  to  forget  their  benefactors, 
the  great  Earl  of  Stratford,  himself  a  notable  illustration 


100  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

of  this  fact,  said,  when  his  death  warrant  was  signed  by 
the  ungrateful  Charles  I,  "Put  not  your  trust  in  princes,'* 
so  we  needn't  concern  ourselves  about  the  contradictions  the 
critics  are  so  ready  to  find. 

In  all  literature  no  book  can  be  found  more  natural,  more 
true  to  life,  more  vivid  and  simple  in  its  records  of  past 
events,  than  I  Samuel.  Each  event  is  recorded  as  by  an 
eyewitness  in  its  own  independent  setting,  absolutely  devoid 
of  any  strain  to  appear  consistent  with  previous  statements. 
Any  lawyer  will  tell  you  that  the  evidence  of  a  witness  is 
to  be  distrusted  when  he  labors  to  harmonize  one  statement 
with  another.     He  is  sure  to  tell  a  lie  when  he  does  that. 

Our  conclusion,  then,  is  fixed  that  the  harp-playing  pre- 
ceded the  Goliath  incident.  Indeed,  the  evidence  is  positive 
that  David  did  not  continue  at  Saul's  court  on  his  first  in- 
troduction. You  were  told  in  II  Sam.  17: 12  that  he  would 
only  come  when  there  was  the  sickness,  and  then  go  back 
to  his  home ;  but  after  his  second  introduction,  as  you  learn 
from  18:2,  Saul  did  not  allow  him  to  go  home  any  more. 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  one  of  his  romances,  makes  the  harp- 
playing  of  a  beautiful  girl  drive  away  the  temporary  mad- 
ness of  a  highland  chief.  In  which  romance  is  this  incident 
related?  I  will  ask  also,  What  did  Shakespeare  say  about 
the  man  devoid  of  music?  Can  you  answer  that?  The 
question  also  arises:  How  do  you  explain  the  healing  of 
Saul?  The  answer  is  obvious.  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  in 
David's  music  was  greater  than  the  demon  possessing  Saul. 

Other  items  on  the  designation  and  anointing  of  David 
we  need  not  discuss  further,  nor  the  healing  of  Saul  by 
David's  playing  the  harp,  but  something  should  be  said 
about  the  fight  with  Goliath  and  the  victory  that  ensued. 

We  have  before  us  a  giant  indeed,  and  we  learn  from 
other  parts  of  the  Bible  that  there  was  a  family  of  these 
giants.  This  man  was  not  the  only  one  of  the  family.  You 
would  have  a  hard  time  carrying  his  spear,  and  you  would 


DAVID  CHOSEN  AS  KING  101 

be  unable  to  carry  his  armor.  The  two  armies  came  face 
to  face,  with  just  a  ravine  between,  one  on  each  hill.  The 
one  that  advances  has  the  task  of  going  down  hill  under 
fire,  and  coming  up  a  hill  under  charge ;  therefore  Goliath, 
the  giant,  according  to  custom,  steps  out  and  challenges 
anybody  in  Israel  to  test  the  fate  of  the  two  nations  on  a 
single  combat,  and  in  order  to  provoke  a  response,  he,  ac- 
cording to  the  usual  custom,  curses  the  gods  of  the  people 
that  he  challenges.  This  happens  for  forty  days  in  succes- 
sion. Israel  is  humbled;  the  Philistines  triumph.  About 
that  time,  Jesse  wants  to  send  some  rations  to  his  three 
boys  in  the  army,  just  like  parents  sometimes  send  provi- 
sions to  students  in  school,  and  David  is  appointed  to  carry 
them,  and  when  he  gets  there,  he  hurriedly  puts  the  provi- 
sions with  the  baggage  of  the  army,  and  rushes  to  the  front. 
He  wants  to  see  the  fight,  and  he  hears  a  shout  and  beholds 
that  giant  come  out  and  repeat  his  insulting  and  blasphemous 
challenge,  and  he  inquires  why  somebody  has  not  responded. 
His  older  brother  says,  virtually,  "You  had  better  go  back 
and  be  tied  again  to  your  mother's  apron  string.  What's  a 
little  boy  like  you  doing  on  a  battle  field  where  men  only 
ought  to  be?"  David  responds  that  nothing  he  has  said 
was  out  of  place,  and  leaves  the  brethren,  who  did  not  be- 
lieve in  him,  as  the  brothers  of  our  Lord  did  not  believe 
in  Him,  and  goes  and  mixes  around  among  the  soldiers  and 
urges  that  somebody  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  could  smite 
that  giant,  and  that  he  is  willing  to  undertake  it. 

Saul,  who  had  offered  an  immense  reward  to  anyone 
who  would  accept  the  challenge  and  defeat  the  giant,  in- 
cluding even  his  own  daughter  for  a  wife,  hears  of  David's 
offer  and  sends  for  him.  He  is  surprised  to  see  a  boy — a 
mere  stripling — and  he  says:  "You?  You  can't  fight  this 
'giant. "  David  says,  "Sire,  I  can.  I  am  the  shepherd  of 
my  father's  flock,  and  when  a  bear  and  a  lion  came  out  to 
prey  on  the  flock,  I  fought  them  unarmed,  and  when  they 


102  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

reared  up  against  me,  I  took  them  by  the  mane  and  slew 
them."  Saul  was  a  much  bigger  man  than  David.  He  said, 
"I  am  willing  to  let  you  go  if  you  will  put  on  my  armor." 
David  put  it  on  and  took  it  off,  saying  that  he  could  not 
fight  in  Saul's  armor.  What  a  text  for  the  preacher! 
Never  try  to  fight  as  some  other  man  fights.  Don't  try  to 
preach  like  Brother  Truett.  You  can't  do  it.  Don't  imitate 
him. 

So  David  marches  down  against  Goliath  with  nothing  but 
a  sling.  He  picks  up  in  that  ravine  five  pebbles.  It  excites 
the  scorn  of  the  giant  that  a  boy  unarmed  should  be  sent 
against  him,  and  he  says,  "Come  up  here  and  let  me  give 
your  flesh  to  the  fowls  of  the  air,"  and  again  curses  Jehovah. 
David  never  stops,  but  runs  to  meet  him,  puts  a  stone  in 
the  sling,  whirling  it  around ;  it  flies  and  smites  the  giant  in 
the  middle  of  the  forehead,  and  buries  itself  in  his  brain. 

The  text  says  that  the  giant  so  struck  fell  on  his  face. 
Why  did  not  he  fall  backwards?  It  is  a  notable  fact,  wit- 
nessed a  thousand  times  on  the  battlefield,  and  in  executing 
men  by  shooting,  that  when  the  firing  squad  fires  and  the 
bullets  enter  the  man's  heart,  he  always  falls  on  his  face, 
never  backwards.  It  is  one  of  these  natural  things  that 
continually  creep  into  Samuel's  narrative  that  makes  one 
know  it  is  a  true  story.  I  have  seen  thousands  of  men 
fall  in  battle,  and  I  never  saw  a  man  shot  through  the  brain 
or  heart  that  did  not  fall  forwards. 

David  rises  up,  takes  Goliath's  sword  and  cuts  his  head 
off,  places  the  head  at  Jerusalem  for  the  present,  puts  the 
armor  in  his  tent,  and  here  comes  the  question  that  you 
may  answer:  When  does  Goliath's  sword  appear  again  in 
the  history?  What  did  he  do  with  it,  and  where  does  it 
come  to  light  again?  With  the  fall  of  the  giant  the  Philis- 
tines are  panic-stricken  and  the  Israelites  encouraged,  and 
the  fight  joins,  and  it  is  in  the  book  of  Chronicles  that  we 
learn  a  fact  not  stated  in  Samuel.     That  passage  about 


DAVID  CHOSEN  AS  KING  103 

Shammah  does  not  belong  there  where  the  harmonist  puts 
it,  but  the  one  about  Eleazar  may  be  rightly  placed.  The 
fight  was  waged  in  a  plat  of  ground  full  of  barley.  Eleazar 
stands  with  him  and  does  great  exploits,  and  so  they  put  the 
Philistines  to  rout,  and  Eleazar  afterwards,  when  David 
becomes  king,  is  one  of  his  mighty  men.  The  victory  is 
very  great,  and  David  returns  and  Saul  appropriates  him. 
He  is  never  more  allowed  to  go  back  to  his  father's  house. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  tfie  general  theme  of  the  Harmony's  third  part  of  the 
reign  of  Saul  ? 

2.  What  part  of  I  Samuel  covers  the  theme? 

3.  How  much  does  I  Chronicles  supplement? 

4.  What  the  present  section  ? 

5.  What  new  book  commended? 

6.  What  the  importance  of  the  history  of  David,  and  its  relation  to 
the  Psalms,  the  Mosaic  law,  the  larger  Messianic  hope,  the  prophets, 
and  the  New  Testament? 

7.  What  the  richness  of  the  literature  on  David,  and  the  preacher's 
duty  concerning  it  ? 

8.  What  items  of  special  interest  in  genealogical  tables  of  both 
Testaments  concerning  David  ? 

9.  Where  his  birthplace  and  home? 

ID.  Was  he  the  seventh  or  eighth  son  of  Jesse,  and  what  scriptures, 
when  compared,  answer  the  question  ? 

11.  Name  other  members  of  David's  family,  some  of  them  quite 
prominent  in  the  subsequent  history,  who  add  to  the  troubles  and 
tragedies  of  his  later  life. 

12.  State  the  conditions  under  which  the  story  of  his  life  opens. 

13.  What  the  divisions  of  this  section? 

14.  Give  the  story  of  Jehovah's  designation  of  David,  and  his 
anointing  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  they  were  both  private. 

15.  What  the  basis  of  the  choice  of  king  this  time,  and  who  were 
surprised  at  it,  and  why? 

16.  What  the  author's  observations  on  this  point? 

17.  What  three  things  should  a  preacher  never  underestimate? 

18.  What  the  elements  of  David's  preparation  to  be  king,  arising 
from  his  early  life  and  office? 

19.  What  says  Shakespeare  of  the  man  devoid  of  music? 

20.  What  David's  highest  qualification  immediately  following  his 
anointing,  and  contrast  it  with  Saul's  like  qualification. 

21.  What  an  old-time  preacher's  distinction  on  this  point  between 
a  saint  and  a  sinner? 

22.  What  apropos  proverb  concerning  the  devil? 

23.  What  David's  personal  appearance  ? 

24.  How  do  you  dispose  of  the  apparent  contradiction  between 


104.  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

i6:  14-23  and  17:  12-58  as  to  the  occasion  of  David's  first  introduction 
to  the  court  of  Saul ;  and  if  you  say  the  harp-playing  was  the  first,  then 
explain  the  ignorance  of  David  and  his  family  manifested  by  Saul 
and  his  court  on  the  second  introduction. 

25.  How  do  you  explain  David's  healing  of  Saul  by  music? 

26.  In  what  romance  does  Sir  Walter  Scott  give  the  story  of  a 
highland  chief's  madness  being  dispelled  by  a  girl's  harp-playing? 

27.  What  the  relative  position  of  the  opposing  armies  of  Saul  and 
the  Philistines? 

28.  What  the  nature  of  Goliath's  challenge,  and  why  does  he  curse 
Jehovah  ? 

29.  What  Saul's  offer  for  reward  for  a  champion  who  would  defeat 
him? 

30.  What  the  occasion  of  David's  presence  on  the  battle-field? 

31.  Why  his  indignation  that  no  Israelite  responded  to  the  chal- 
lenge, and  his  oldest  brother's  rebuke  ? 

32.  Show    from    his    interview    with    Saul    that    faith    and    not 
immodesty  prompted  him  to  accept  the  challenge. 

33.  Why  did  he  reject  Saul's  armor,  and  rely  upon  his  shepherd's 
sling? 

34.  Why  did  Goliath,  when  smitten,  fall  on  his  face? 

35.  What  the  effect  of  the  fall  of  Goliath  on  the  two  armies? 

36.  What  hero  stood  by  David  in  the  fight,  before  the  main  body 
of  Saul's  army  arrives  ? 

37.  Tell  the  history  of  David's  disposition  of  Goliath's  head,  armor 
and  sword,  and  when  again  does  the  sword  appear  in  the  history? 


XI 


THE    WAR    BETWEEN    LOVE    AND    HATE— THE 
STORY  OF  A  LOST  SOUL 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  84-87 

THIS  discussion  commences  at  I  Sam.  18:  i,  and  here 
we  are  confronted,  first  of  all,  by  another  text-diffi- 
culty. We  saw  in  a  former  discussion  that  about 
27  verses  of  the  17th  chapter  did  not  appear  in  the  Septua- 
gint,  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  we 
know  that  those  omissions  must  have  been  in  the  original 
Hebrew,  for  Josephus  follows  the  text  of  the  17th  chapter 
strictly  in  his  history  of  the  Jews,  but  when  we  come  to 
the  omissions  in  the  i8th  chapter  from  the  Septuagint, 
Josephus  does  not  give  them.  I  repeat  that  our  present 
Hebrew  text  was  derived  from  late  manuscripts  of  about 
the  9th  or  loth  century.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there 
were  no  Hebrew  texts  before  that,  for  Jerome,  who  trans- 
lated the  whole  Bible  into  Latin,  the  edition  called  the  "Vul- 
gate," in  the  4th  century,  had  Hebrew  texts  before  him, 
and  in  a  Roman  Catholic  English  Bible  we  find  Jerome's 
Latin  Bible  translated  into  English  and  called  the  "Douay 
Bible,"  which  contains  every  word  of  our  text.  There  are 
about  14  verses  of  the  iSth  chapter  that  do  not  appear  in 
any  manuscript  of  the  Septuagint  which  we  have  except  the 
Alexandrian  manuscript,  and  it  seems  to  be  added  there. 
It  is  not  in  the  Vatican  manuscript  of  the  Septuagint,  but 
we  may  thoroughly  rely  upon  everything  set  forth  in  the 
17th  and  i8th  chapters  as  being  a  part  of  the  Word  of  God. 
Before  commencing  to  expound  this  section  I  call  atten- 

105 


106  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

tion  to  a  word  in  the  27th  verse  of  the  i8th  chapter,  "tale" 
— "a  full  tale."  That  is  an  old  English  word  not  much 
used  now.  I  give  an  example  of  its  old  EngHsh  use.  Milton 
in  one  of  his  poems,  "L' Allegro,"  uses  this  language : 

"Every  shepherd  tells  his  tale, 
Under  the  hawthorne  in  the  dale." 

What  is  the  meaning  of  the  word,  "tale?"  Does  it  mean 
that  every  shepherd  tells  his  story,  or  narrative  ?  No ;  that 
is  not  the  meaning  of  the  old  English  word,  "tale."  "Every 
shepherd  tells  his  number,  his  reckoning  of  the  sheep." 
From  that  we  get  our  English  word,  "tally."  The  shep- 
herds number  their  flocks  in  the  evening  to  see  if  they  have 
the  same  number  that  they  took  out  in  the  morning.  "Every 
shepherd  makes  his  tally,  under  the  hawthorne  in  the  dale." 
That  is  what  Milton  means. 

There  is  another  old  English  word  in  chapter  18:30 — 
"set,"  "much  set  by."  What  does  "set"  mean  there?  The 
meaning  of  "set"  in  such  a  connection  is  "esteem."  We 
say,  "I  set  great  store  by  such  a  man,"  which  means,  "I 
esteem  him  very  much." 

Yet  another  English  word  in  this  section,  where  Jona- 
than's bow  and  arrows  are  called  "artillery."  Our  meaning 
of  the  word  "artillery"  is  confined  to  cannon,  but  the  origi- 
nal word  meant  any  implement  of  war.  These  remarks  on 
"tale,"  "set"  and  "artillery"  are  to  show  the  changes  that 
have  taken  place  in  the  signification  of  words  in  the  English 
language  since  the  Bible  was  translated  by  the  King  James 
revisers.  Paul  says,  "I  purposed  to  come  unto  you,  (but 
was  let  hitherto)."  Now  "let"  means  "permitted;"  then  it 
meant  "hindered" — "I  was  hindered  hitherto." 

Having  disposed  of  that  reference  to  the  text,  and  those 
four  instances  of  the  changed  meaning  of  old  English  words, 
we  will  take  up  the  discussion  proper.  I  commence  with 
this  observation,  that  from  the  18th  to  the  26th  chapter, 
inclusive,  we  have  a  section  of  the  history  that  ought  to 


LOVE  AND  HATE  107 

be  studied  at  one  sitting.  It  is  a  pity  to  break  it  up  into 
fragments.  The  parts  are  so  intimately  related  that  we 
need  to  have  the  whole  of  the  story  before  us  in  order  to 
get  in  their  relations  certain  great  lessons.  These  lessons 
are: 

1.  These  nine  chapters,  from  the  i8th  to  the  26th  inclu- 
sive, show  a  protracted  conflict  between  hate  and  love,  and 
love's  final  triumph ;  Saul's  hate  against  David ;  the  love  of 
Jonathan,  Michal,  the  people,  the  prophets  and  the  priests 
for  David,  warring  against  Saul's  hate  of  David,  and  we 
see  Satan  inspiring  the  hate  and  Jehovah  inspiring  the  love. 
That  is  the  first  lesson  of  these  nine  chapters. 

2.  These  chapters  show  that  there  is  a  conflict  between 
folly  and  wisdom,  for  hate  is  folly  and  love  is  wisdom; 
therefore  the  hating  man  is  showing  himself  to  be  a  fool  at 
every  step  of  the  history,  and  the  loving  man  is  showing 
himself  to  be  wise  at  every  step  of  the  history.  Not  only 
is  hate  criminal,  but  it  is  the  most  foolish  passion  in  which 
you  can  indulge.  The  remarkable  wisdom  and  forbearance 
of  David  defeat  all  the  folly  of  Saul's  hate.  That  is  one 
of  the  most  evident  things  in  the  nine  chapters.  Under 
similar  conditions  not  one  man  in  a  million  would  imitate 
David;  not  one  in  any  number  of  millions  under  similar 
conditions  would  do  as  David  did  unless  he  were  influenced 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  History  abounds  in  lessons  to 
show  that  men,  under  long,  continued  provocations,  not  only 
strike  back,  which  David  didn't  do,  but  they  become  traitors 
to  their  own  countries  when  the  persecuting  one  is  the  ruler 
of  the  country.  If  they  are  not  under  the  influence  of  God, 
they  will  end  in  becoming  traitors. 

We  have  a  signal  example  in  Benedict  Arnold.  There 
was  not  a  more  valiant  soldier  and  capable  general  in  the 
army  in  the  Revolution  than  Benedict  Arnold.  He  was 
the  bravest  of  the  brave,  but  Congress  not  only  showed 
lack  of  appreciation  of  him,  but  put  one  indignity  on  him 


108  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

after  another.  Then  he  acted  unHke  David — he  sold  his 
country  to  the  British  and  became  a  general  in  the  British 
army. 

In  studying  Roman  history  we  see  the  same  thing  in 
Coriolanus.  When  the  Romans  mistreated  this  great  gen- 
eral he  went  over  to  the  enemy  of  Rome,  the  Volsci,  and 
led  a  triumphant  army  to  the  very  gates  of  Rome.  The 
Romans  in  terror  asked  his  mother  to  go  and  plead  with 
him  to  spare  Rome.  She  went  out  and  appealed  to  his 
patriotism  and  to  his  love  of  family.  He  said,  "Mother, 
you  have  saved  Rome,  but  you  have  lost  your  son ;  for  the 
Volsci  will  kill  me  unless  I  capture  Rome,"  and  they  did 
kill  him  when  he  refused  to  capture  Rome. 

When  a  man  is  not  under  the  guidance  of  God's  Holy 
Spirit  and  injuries  are  put  upon  him,  he  will  strike  back 
and  resort  ultimately  to  any  expedient  to  glut  his  vengeance. 

3.  The  third  great  lesson  is  the  historian's  graphic  de- 
scription of  the  progress  of  the  passions,  whether  good  or 
bad,  ever  developing  until  each  one  comes  to  a  final  crystal- 
lization. More  than  once  I  have  told  you  of  that  power  of 
the  historian  in  I  Samuel  in  tracing  developments. 

4.  The  fourth  lesson  is  that  both  hate  and  love  recog- 
nize the  will  of  Jehovah  in  the  passing  events.  We  see 
Saul's  hate  discovering  in  David's  triumph  that  he  is  the 
rival  whom  God  has  appointed  to  succeed  him,  and  we  will 
see  Jonathan's  love  discovering  the  same  thing. 

5.  The  fifth  lesson  is  the  distinct  stages  of  Saul's  re- 
morse when  under  the  influence  of  Jonathan's  counsel  and 
David's  good  will. 

6.  The  sixth  lesson  is  the  progress  in  the  attachment 
between  David  and  Jonathan.  There  is  nothing  like  it  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  though  we  find  in  the  classics  the 
remarkable  love  between  Damon  and  Pythias.  There  are 
three  distinct  covenants  between  Jonathan  and  David. 

7.  The  whole  story  shows  that  if  God  be  for  a  man. 


LOVE  AND  HATE  109 

neither  man  nor  devil  can  be  against  him  successfully,  and 
that  if  God  be  against  a  man  none  can  be  successfully  for 
him.  As  Paul  puts  it:  ''If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be 
against  us?"  Oftentimes  we  have  to  fight  public  opinion. 
Oftentimes  we  feel  that  we  are  isolated  from  our  kind  on 
account  of  the  position  that  we  are  compelled  to  take  as 
God's  representative,  but  let  this  comfort  us,  that  if  God  be 
for  us ;  if,  indeed,  we  are  on  God's  side,  nothing  ultimately 
will  prevail  against  us. 

8.  The  eighth  lesson  is  that  high  above  Saul,  Jonathan, 
Michal,  David,  we  see  two  worlds  interested — Satan  en- 
deavoring to  thwart  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  using  Saul  and  others  as  his  instruments,  and 
Jehovah  proceeding  to  establish  His  kingdom  and  using 
David,  Jonathan  and  others  as  His  instruments. 

//  we  don't  recognize  the  fact  that  the  world  above  and 
the  world  beneath  touch  human  lives  and  have  much  to  do 
with  events,  then  we  never  can  understand  the  history  of 
any  one  man,  much  less  one  nation. 

That  was  the  trouble  in  Job's  mind.  If  he  could  have 
seen  what  the  historian  tells  us  about,  that  coming  together 
of  the  angels,  good  and  bad,  when  God  held  His  stated 
meeting  of  angels,  and  knew  that  an  evil  angel  was  seeking 
to  do  him  harm,  and  that  he  could  not  do  this  except  as 
God  permitted  it,  then  he  could  have  understood  why  un- 
deserved afflictions  came  upon  hirh,  and  why  God  permitted 
them.  Homer,  while  holding  to  the  wrong  kind  of  gods, 
not  only  follows  the  true  poetical  idea,  but  he  follows  the 
true  idea  in  representing  all  the  gods  and  goddesses  as  inter- 
ested in  the  Trojan  war.  I  have  studied  it  so  much  that 
when  a  war  commences,  say  between  Japan  and  Russia,  I 
look  for  the  devil's  tracks  and  also  look  for  the  tracks  of 
Jehovah,  and  I  can  better  understand  the  issue  of  wars 
when  I  do  that. 

These  are  the  great  lessons  that  are  set  forth  in  the  nine 


110  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

chapters.  We  will  commence  now  and  discover  these  great 
lessons  one  after  another  as  we  take  up  the  story  seriatim, 
and  we  note  first  the  progress  of  Saul's  hate.  What  was 
the  origin  of  Saul's  hate?  When  he  committed  his  first  sin 
God  announced  to  him  that  He  had  selected  a  man  after 
His  own  heart  to  whom  He  would  give  the  kingdom,  and 
when  Saul  committed  his  second  sin  God  again  refers  to 
His  purpose  to  substitute  for  Saul  a  better  man.  That 
rankles  in  Saul's  mind.  Always  he  carries  that  thought 
with  him:  ^'Somebody  is  to  be  put  up  to  succeed  me,"  and 
hence  he  will  be  looking  around,  watching  every  arriving 
man — "Maybe  he  is  the  one."  There  we  see  the  origin 
of  it. 

The  first  expression  of  it  comes  in  this  section,  which 
says  that  after  the  great  victory  over  the  Philistines  by 
David  described  in  the  last  chapter,  and  the  pursuit  clear 
to  the  gates  of  the  Philistine  cities,  that  when  the  army 
returned  home  the  women,  according  to  a  custom  of  that 
time  and  of  this  time,  determined  to  celebrate  the  return 
of  the  victorious  army,  so  they  sang,  antiphonally.  It  was 
like  the  responsive  singing  of  Miriam  and  her  choir  in  the 
paean  of  deliverance  after  the  safe  passage  of  the  Red  Sea. 
The  record  says  that  they  sang  antiphonally,  and  the  first 
part  of  them  would  sing,  "Saul  hath  slain  his  thousands" 
and  the  other  part  would  respond,  "But  David  hath  slain 
his  ten  thousands." 

When  these  women  sang  that  way  it  excited  Saul's  wrath, 
and  he  instantly  thought  of  what  God  had  announced,  and 
he  says,  "What  more  is  there  for  him  but  the  kingdom?" 
"Here  is  a  man  who  has  gained  a  great  victory  and  the 
people  are  with  him,  and  even  the  women  are  putting  him 
above  me,"  hence  the  text  says  that  from  that  day  Saul 
eyed  David.  When  a  man  looks  at  another  sideways  under 
lowered  lids,  that  is  what  we  call  "eyeing  a  man."  He  is 
under  suspicion   from  that   time   on.     That   is   the   first 


LOVE  AND  HATE  111 

expression  of  the  hate  of  Saul,  and  you  find  it  in  chapter 
18:8,9. 

We  now  come  to  a  truth  of  very  great  importance.  In 
a  previous  part  of  the  book  we  have  seen  that  God,  in 
David's  music,  could  exorcise  the  demon  in  Saul,  and  did 
do  it,  and  for  quite  a  while  Saul  was  not  under  the  posses- 
sion of  the  demon,  but  here  comes  a  word  from  our  Lord 
fitting  the  case  exactly.  It  is  found  in  Matt.  12 :  43-45 : 
"The  unclean  spirit,  when  he  is  gone  out  of  the  man,  passeth 
through  waterless  places  seeking  rest,  and  findeth  it  not. 
Then  he  saith,  I  will  return  into  my  house  whence  I  came 
out;  and  when  he  is  come,  he  findeth  it  empty,  swept,  and 
garnished.  Then  goeth  he  and  taketh  with  himself  seven 
other  spirits  more  evil  than  himself,  and  they  enter  in  and 
dwell  there :  and  the  last  state  of  that  man  becometh  worse 
than  the  first."  That  is  pertinent  to  this  case.  A  demon 
may  be  cast  out  once,  then,  as  Jesus  says  to  a  man  under 
similar  conditions,  "Go  and  sin  no  more,  lest  a  worse  thing 
befall  thee."  Should  that  demon  come  back  he  cannot  again 
be  exorcised.  The  text  here  is  the  proof.  When  that  evil 
spirit,  taking  advantage  of  Saul's  hate,  re-entered  Saul,  they 
sent  for  the  usual  remedy — David  must  come  and  play  for 
him.  But  David  plays  and  the  spirit  does  not  leave.  On 
the  contrary,  he  prompts  Saul  to  thrust  a  javelin  at  the 
heart  of  David.  That  is  the  pivotal  point  in  Saul's  case. 
There  he  passes  the  boundary  line. 

"There  is  a  time,  we  know  not  when ; 
A  place,  we  know  not  where; 
That  marks  the  destiny  of  men 
To  glory  or  despair." 

It  is  as  if  a  man  under  the  habit  of  drunkenness  is  cured 
at  a  sanitarium.  Let  him  beware  of  ever  falling  into  the 
habit  again;  the  sanitarium  won't  cure  him  the  next  time. 
In  other  words,  a  sinner  that  does  not  avail  himself  of  the 
means  of  grace  that  are  applied  to  him  will  ultimately  get 


112  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

past  feeling;  like  Pharaoh,  his  heart  will  be  hardened  until 
it  never  can  be  softened  again.  Like  Ephraim,  he  will 
become  wedded  to  his  idols. 

The  most  notable  instance  of  this  that  ever  came  within 
my  experience  was  at  a  meeting  that  I  held  in  the  old  Provi- 
dence Church  in  Burleson  County.  Ah!  what  a  meeting! 
Seventy  days  and  nights,  until  it  seemed  that  every  sinner 
in  fifteen  miles  of  the  place  was  converted.  One  night 
when  I  made  an  appeal  to  see  if  we  could  find  anybody  that 
was  unsaved,  a  white-haired  old  man  got  up  and  said,  "I 
am  the  man.  I  have  been  watching  your  meetings.  There 
was  a  time  when  such  things  moved  my  heart,  but  I  kept 
trifling  with  the  monitions  of  the  Spirit  of  God  that  im- 
pelled me  to  turn  to  Christ  and  be  saved,  and  in  one  meeting 
after  another  I  resisted  and  said,  *No,  No,  No,'  and  at  last, 
as  if  God  had  said  to  me,  'Your  no  shall  be  forever,'  all 
feelings  in  that  direction  were  taken  away  from  me,  and  as 
I  stand  up  here  before  you  tonight  telling  you  this  experi- 
ence, you  see  a  man  doomed,  without  hope  of  mercy,  simply 
because  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  alone  can  lead  a  man  to 
salvation,  has  departed  from  me  forever."  It  made  a 
solemn  impression. 

We  notice  now  that  the  spirit  can't  be  reached  by  music, 
even  when  God  is  in  the  music,  and  hence  there  is  an  attempt 
to  destroy  David's  Hfe.  The  next  step  is  found  in  verse  12. 
That  tells  us  that  Saul  was  afraid  because  God's  Spirit  was 
on  David,  and  had  left  him.  There  is  one  of  the  conse- 
quences that  the  Spirit  of  God  has  left — fear.  He  was 
afraid,  and  he  was  afraid  of  David,  so  he  takes  another 
step  to  destroy  David.  He  removed  him  from  office  near 
his  person  and  gave  him  a  position  in  the  firing  line  of  the 
army,  not  to  honor  David  by  that  promotion,  but  the  text 
tells  us  he  did  it  in  the  hope  that  David  may  perish  by  the 
hands  of  the  Philistines,  in  some  of  the  fights.  We  have 
an  old  saying  coming  from  Virgil,  ^'Beware  of  the  Greeks 


LOVE  AND  HATE  113 

bringing  gifts.'*  That  was  said  when  they  left  the  Trojans 
that  great  wooden  horse,  which  had  500  Greeks  hidden  in 
it.  It  was  so  large  they  could  not  bring  it  in  through  the 
gates,  and  had  to  break  down  the  wall  to  get  it  in,  and  that 
night  the  Greeks  came  out  of  the  horse  and  opened  the 
gates  and  the  city  was  taken.  And  that  was  Saul's  mean- 
ing when  he  promoted  David  to  this  high  office  in  his  service. 
He  meant  to  destroy  him  by  it.  ^ 

The  next  step  in  the  progress  is  in  verse  15.  When  Saul 
saw  that  David  acted  very  wisely  in  the  new  position  he 
was  "more  afraid."  David  didn't  get  killed.  God  took 
care  of  him,  and  he  acted  so  wisely  in  the  administration  of 
the  new  office  that  it  increased  Saul's  fear. 

We  come  to  verse  17,  and  ask  what  next  Saul  will  do? 
What  of  this  hate  of  his?  To  what  expedient  will  he  now 
resort?  He  approaches  David  secretly  through  his  officers, 
as  though  he  was  conferring  another  great  honor  on  him. 
and  offers  his  daughter  in  marriage.  He  should  be  the 
son-in-law  of  the  king  if  he  will  give — not  money  for  her 
dowry,  for  David  did  not  have  it — but  "Kill  me  100  Philis- 
tines and  bring  evidence  that  you  have  killed  them  and  com- 
plete the  tally" — that  is,  let  the  number  be  counted.  Now 
what  was  his  object?  He  didn't  want  David  in  his  family, 
but  he  would  set  a  snare  by  the  use  of  his  own  daughter, 
and  the  object  of  it  would  be  to  put  David  in  a  position  of 
personal  danger.  Saul's  thought  was  that  in  fighting  the 
100  Philistines  some  one  would  kill  him. 

Verse  20  shows  progress  again.  "And  when  Saul  saw  it 
was  Jehovah  with  David,  and  that  all  the  people  of  Israel 
loved  him,  he  was  more  afraid."  Your  text  says  that 
Michal  loved  him.  The  real  text  is,  "When  Saul  saw  that 
Jehovah  was  with  him  and  that  all  the  people  loved  him  he 
was  more  afraid."  Notice  the  progress,  and  that  is  this 
evil  spirit  in  Saul  increasing  his  madness,  and  they  try  the 
music  remedy  one  more  time.     So  David  is  sent  for  to  play 


114  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

before  Saul,  and  again  the  evil  spirit  prompts  Saul,  and  he 
thrusts  a  javelin  at  him  the  second  time.  David  saw  that 
he  could  not  longer  fool  with  that  kind  of  situation  and  he 
left  and  went  to  his  own  private  house.  There  is  a  Hmit 
to  the  power  of  music.    True,  Shakespeare  says, 

"A  man  who  has  no  music  in  his  soul, 
Nor  concord  of  sweet  sound, 
Is  fit  for  treason,  stratagems  and  spoils." 

The  next  step  in  the  progress  of  that  hate  is  in  chapter 
19.  Saul  called  Jonathan  to  him  and  certain  of  his  officers 
and  gave  them  a  peremptory  command  to  execute  David. 
Jonathan  says,  "Father,  what  hath  he  done?  He  doesn't 
deserve  death.  He  hath  never  done  you  any  harm.  Why 
should  David  be  slain  ?"  The  pleading  of  the  beloved  Jona- 
than prevails.  When  Jonathan  so  humbly  pleads,  Saul's 
heart  melts  and  David  comes  back  and  heads  the  whole 
army  and  wins  another  glorious  victory  over  the  Philistines. 
And  now  Saul's  hate  will  not  respect  the  pleading  of  Jona- 
than, so  David  went  to  his  home  saying  that  he  could  not 
stay  near  Saul  without  provoking  death. 

Then  follows  an  incident  that  David  commemorates  in  the 
Psalms.  They  surround  his  house.  One  of  the  most  des- 
picable acts  of  tyranny  is  what  is  called  "domiciliary  visi- 
tation." Man's  home  is  regarded  as  his  castle,  and  when 
the  privacy  of  his  home  is  invaded  by  espionage  or  by  an 
attempt  to  take  life  on  his  own  hearthstone,  there  is  no 
step  beyond  that  a  tyrant  can  go.  Revolution  comes  when 
that  is  attempted.  That  is  why  the  Huguenots  left  France ; 
the  dragoons  were  stationed  in  their  homes,  and  the  privacy 
of  the  home  was  violated.  They  could  not  even  in  private 
whisper  to  each  other  but  the  words  were  heard  by  some 
of  these  spies  and  reported.  In  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence that  is  one  of  the  accusations  against  the  king 
— that  he  had  stationed  troops  in  private  houses  without 


LOVE  AND  HATE  115 

the  consent  of  the  people.  It  made  a  marvelous  impression 
on  David's  mind  that  night  when  he  looked  out  and  saw  the 
sentinels  all  around  his  house.  David's  wife  helps  him  that 
time.  She  says,  "If  you  don't  escape  tonight,  tomorrow 
you  will  be  a  dead  man,"  and  a  woman  when  she  is  stirred 
up  in  a  matter  and  puts  her  wits  to  work  is  not  easy  to 
thwart.  So  she  puts  a  teraphim — a  wooden  image — in 
David's  bed  and  tied  a  wig  or  something  over  it  and  wrapped 
the  image  up  to  represent  a  man  sleeping,  and  when  the 
soldiers  came  in  to  arrest  David  she  said,  "You  see  he  is 
sleeping,"  and  they  waited  till  morning  and  David  got  away. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  textual  difficulty  in  I  Sam.  i8,  and  what  the  discussion 
thereon  ? 

2.  What  the  meaning  of  the  old  English  word,  "tale,"  and  what 
other  English  word  is  derived  from  it? 

3.  What  the  meaning  of  the  old  English  word,  "set,"  in  the  phrase, 
"much  set  by,"  in  I  Sam.  18 :  30? 

4.  What  the  meaning  of  the  word,  "artillery,"  as  used  in  this 
connection  ? 

5.  What  the  meaning  of  the  word,  "let,"  as  used  by  Paul  in  Rom. 
1 :  13,  and  what  the  lessons  of  these  uses  of  the  words,  "tale,"  "set," 
"artillery,"  and  "let?" 

6.  What  chapters  of  I  Samuel  should  be  studied  as  one  section, 
and  why? 

7.  What  the  great  lessons  of  these  chapters? 

8.  In  what  two  respects  is  David's  self-restraint  under  these  per- 
sistent and  murderous  attacks  of  Saul  without  a  parallel,  and  what 
two  great  men  under  less  provocation  became  traitors  to  their  native 
land? 

9.  ^  What  the  difficulty  in  Job's  mind,  and  what  instance  in  the 
classics  referred  to  in  illustrating  it? 

10.  What  the  origin  of  Saul's  hate,  and  what  the  first  expression 
of  it? 

11.  What  the  words  which  so  graphically  describe  Saul's  hate,  and 
the  counter-progress  of  David's  wisdom? 

12.  What  saying  of  our  Lord  shows  the  fearful  state  of  a  man  who 
allows  an  exorcised  demon  to  re-enter  the  soul? 

13.  Show  by  David's  music,  Jonathan's  intercession,  and  the  gift 
of  prophesying  that  what  expels  the  demon  the  first  time  will  not 
avail  the  second  time. 

14.  Quote  the  stanza  given  to  illustrate  the  sin  against  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

15.  Relate  the  incident  given  to  illustrate  this  sin. 


116  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

i6.    What  the  steps  of  progress  in  Saul's  hate  of  David  as  revealed 
in  his  efforts  to  take  his  life? 

17.  What  does  Shakespeare  say  of  a  man  who  has  no  music  in  his 
soul? 

18.  In  what  Psalm  does  David  commemorate  the  watching  around 
his  house  at  night? 

19.  How  does  David  escape  from  that  house,  and  what  later  and 
greater  Saul  escaped  like  David  through  a  window? 

20.  What  illustrations  of  this  incident  of  watching  around  David's 
house  in  later  history? 


XII 

SAUL'S  MURDEROUS  PURSUIT  OF  DAVID 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  87-91 

LET  us  trace  in  the  Old  Testament  the  usage  of  the 
word,  "teraphim,"  which  occurs  in  chapter  19 :  13 : 
"And  Michal  took  the  teraphim,  and  laid  it  in  the 
bed,  and  put  a  pillow  of  goat's  hair  at  the  head  thereof  and 
covered  it  with  the  clothes,"  answering  this  five-fold  ques- 
tion: (i)  Is  the  word,  "teraphim,"  ever  used  in  a  good 
sense?  (2)  What  was  it?  (3)  Was  its  use  a  violation  of 
the  first  or  the  second  commandment?  (4)  What  the 
meaning  of  such  an  image  being  in  David's  house?  (5) 
Show  how  in  history  the  use  of  images  became  a  dividing 
line  between  Protestants  and  Romanists,  and  what  the 
danger  of  their  use  even  as  a  help  toward  the  worship  of 
God. 

We  find  the  first  use  of  it  in  Genesis  31 :  19,  26,  31  and 
34.  That  chapter  shows  how  Jacob  and  his  wives  and  chil- 
dren and  property  left  his  father-in-law,  Laban,  on  their 
return  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  that  Rachel  stole  her  father's 
"teraphim;"  and  when  Laban  pursues,  as  we  find  in  the 
same  chapter,  it  is  one  of  his  accusations  against  Jacob  that 
he  had  stolen  his  household  gods.  Jacob  invites  him  to 
make  a  search  and  Rachel  puts  them  under  a  camel-saddle 
and  sits  down  on  the  saddle  and  won't  get  up,  and  so  Laban 
can't  find  them.  Then,  in  Genesis  35 : 2  Jacob  orders  all 
of  his  family  to  put  away  those  false  gods. 

The  next  use  of  the  word  comes  in  Judges  17  and  18. 
The  history  is  this:  Micah,  in  the  days  of  the  judges,  makes 

117 


118  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

to  himself  molten  and  graven  images  and  teraphim  and  puts 
them  in  a  separate  room  in  his  house,  i.e.,  has  a  little  temple, 
and  consecrates  his  own  son  to  be  a  priest,  but  eventually 
there  comes  along  a  Levite,  who  is  a  descendant  of  Moses 
through  Gershom,  and  Micah  employs  this  Levite  on  a  salary 
to  be  his  priest  and  to  conduct  his  worship  through  these 
images  graven,  molten  and  the  teraphim,  using  an  ephod. 
A  little  later  the  Danites  on  their  migration  capture  all 
these  household  gods  of  Micah,  and  the  priest  as  well. 
Micah  pursues  and  complains  that  they  robbed  him  of  his 
gods.  The  Danites  advise  him  to  go  home  and  keep  his 
mouth  shut,  and  in  the  meantime  they  capture  Laish  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  Holy  Land  and  set  up  these  same 
images  and  use  that  same  descendant  of  Moses  with  the 
ephod  to  seek  Jehovah  through  those  images. 

The  next  time  we  findi  the  word  is  in  this  section,  where 
Michal  took  a  teraphim  and  put  it  in  David's  bed  and  made 
it  look  like  somebody  asleep.  The  next  usage  of  the  word 
is  found  in  H  Kings  23 :  24,  in  the  early  part  of  the  great 
reformation  led  by  King  Josiah,  who,  after  the  law  of  the 
Lord  had  been  found,  causes  all  Judah  to  put  away  the 
teraphim  and  everything  that  was  contrary  to  the  Mosaic 
law. 

We  find  it  next  in  order  of  time  in  Hosea  3 : 4,  where  a 
prediction  is  made  that  Israel  for  a  long  time  shall  be  with- 
out king  or  ephod  or  teraphim,  and  the  last  use  is  in  Ezek. 
21 :22,  23.  Ezekiel  in  exile  shows  how  the  king  of  Babylon 
came  to  the  forks  of  the  road  and  used  divinations,  etc.,  by 
the  use  of  teraphim. 

The  word  is  never  used  in  a  good  sense.  Jehovah  ap- 
points His  own  way  of  approach  to  Him  and  of  ascertaining 
the  future,  condemning  the  use  of  teraphim  in  approaching 
Him.  Even  that  passage  in  Hosea  only  shows  that  after 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  the  Jews  for  a  long 
time — the  present  time  included — will  have  no  king,  no 


SAUL'S  PURSUIT  OF  DAVID  119 

ephod,  no  teraphim.  That  is,  they  would  in  no  sense  be 
idolaters,  and  yet  their  worship  of  Jehovah  for  this  long 
period — including  the  present  time — will  be  empty  and  vain 
until  just  before  the  millennial  times,  when  they  in  one  day 
accept  the  long-rejected  Messiah. 

A  teraphim  is  an  image,  but  it  is  distinguished  from 
graven  or  molten  images  in  two  particulars :  ( i )  it  is  carved 
out  of  wood;  (2)  it  always  represented  a  human  form, 
whereas  the  graven  and  molten  images  were  always  of  metal 
and  oftenest  took  the  form  of  the  lower  animals,  like  the 
calf  that  Aaron  made  at  Sinai,  and  the  calves  set  up  by 
Jeroboam  at  Dan  and  Bethel.  To  make  the  distinction 
clearer  by  a  passage  in  the  New  Testament,  the  image  of 
the  great  goddess  Diana  at  Ephesus  (Acts  19)  which  was 
said  to  have  fallen  down  from  heaven,  was  a  teraphim ;  that 
is,  was  a  wooden  image  in  human  form  and  a  very  ugly  one, 
but  the  little  silver  shrines  of  the  temple  of  Diana  made  by 
Demetrius,  the  silversmith,  and  other  silversmiths,  were 
either  graven  or  molten  images. 

Another  distinction  is  that  the  graven  and  the  molten 
images  were  oftenest  worshiped  as  gods,  the  teraphim  often- 
est used  as  a  method  of  approach  to  their  gods,  and  both  of 
them  were  violations  of  the  second  commandment. 

The  teraphim  in  David's  house  was  Michal's,  not  David's, 
as  the  stolen  teraphim  of  Laban's  was  Rachel's  and  not 
Jacob's.  There  is  no  evidence  that  either  Jacob  or  David 
ever  resorted  to  teraphim  or  favored  their  use. 

Coming  now  to  the  last  part  of  the  question,  one  of  the 
chief  issues  between  the  Protestants  and  the  Romanists  in 
the  Reformation  was  that  the  Romanists  multiplied  images 
in  their  worship — metallic  or  wooden  images.  For  instance, 
an  image  of  Jesus  on  the  cross,  an  image  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  the  cross  itself,  or  the  image  of  some  saint.  These, 
when  carved  out  of  wood  representing  human  form,  were 
teraphim,  but  when  they  were  made  out  of  metal  were 


120  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

graven  or  molten  images.  While  the  better  and  more 
learned  class  of  the  Romanists  only  use  these  images  as 
objective  aids  to  worship,  the  masses  of  the  people  become 
image  worshipers,  bowing  down  before  the  image  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  and  ascribing  adoration  to  her  and  praying 
to  her,  and  ascribing  all  the  grace  of  salvation  to  her.  Even 
the  pope  himself  says,  in  one  of  his  proclamations,  that  the 
fountain  of  all  grace  is  in  Mary.  In  this  way  they  violate 
that  fundamental  declaration  of  our  Lord  that  God  is  a 
Spirit  and  they  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  The  Greek  word,  eikon,  an  image, 
equals  in  sense  the  Hebrew  word,  "teraphim,"  and  other 
images,  so  when  the  Protestants,  in  their  fury  against  what 
they  called  idolatry,  would  break  up  these  images  wherever 
they  found  them  they  were  called  "iconoclasts,"  i.e.,  "break- 
ers of  images."  Hence,  when  Charles  I  wrote  that  famous 
book,  "Eikon,"  Oliver  Cromwell  demanded  of  Milton  that 
he  write  a  reply  to  it,  and  he  named  his  reply  "Iconoclast," 
a  breaker  of  the  image.  The  image  question  is  a  big  one 
in  history. 

There  is  a  relation  to  that  teraphim  of  Michal  and  her 
wifely  relation  to  David.  It  showed  that  while  indeed  she 
loved  David  when  he  was  a  prosperous  man,  she  had  no 
sympathy  with  his  religion,  nor  was  she  willing  to  share 
his  exile  and  its  sufferings.  She  could  never  say  to  him 
what  Ruth  said  to  Naomi:  "Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee, 
nor  cease  from  following  after  thee;  for  where  thou  lodgest 

I  will  lodge,  thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God 
my  God.  Where  thou  diest  I  will  die,  and  there  will  I  be 
buried."  When  David's  fortunes  were  eclipsed  she  readily 
enough  consented  to  become  the  wife  of  another  man,  to 
whom  her  father  gave  her,  and  whom  she  loved  more  than 
she  had  ever  loved  David.  When  David,  after  he  became 
king,  sent  for  her  to  be  returned  to  him,  as  we  learn  from 

II  Sam.  3,  she  came  unwillingly,  and  at  a  still  later  date 


SAUL'S  PURSUIT  OF  DAVID  1^1 

when  David  brought  the  Ark  from  Kirjath-jearim  to  put 
it  in  Jerusalem  and  participated  in  the  reHgious  exercises  of 
the  day,  Michal  looked  out  of  the  window  and  saw  him  and 
despised  him,  and  when  he  came  in  she  broke  out  on  him 
in  scornful  speech,  mocking  him  for  the  part  he  had  taken 
in  that  day's  religious  service.  When  a  wife  differs  so 
radically  from  her  husband  in  his  religion  as  Michal  did,  the 
marital  relation  is  much  affected  by  it. 

The  reconciliation  of  the  declaration  in  II  Sam.  6 :  23  that 
Michal  to  the  day  of  her  death  had  no  children,  with  the 
declaration  in  chapter  21:8  that  there  were  five  sons  of 
Michal,  is  this :  In  the  second  passage  the  word  Michal 
should  be  Merab,  the  older  sister  of  Michal,  who  was 
married  to  Adriel,  the  Meholathite,  and  bare  him  five 
sons  who  were  gibbeted  to  appease  the  wrath  of  the 
Gibeonites. 

Fleeing  from  Saul,  David  rightly  seeks  refuge  with 
Samuel  at  Ramah,  and  Samuel  took  him  to  Naioth  of 
Ramah.  Being  banished  from  the  king,  quite  naturally 
and  appropriately  he  sought  the  prophet,  and  when  he  came 
to  Samuel,  the  prophet  took  him  from  Ramah  to  Naioth; 
that  means  the  Seminary  buildings  where  the  school  of  the 
prophets  was  assembled,  as  if  we  had  said,  "He  went  from 
Waco  to  Ft.  Worth  and  to  Naioth  of  Ft.  Worth,"  i.e.,  the 
Seminary  of  Ft.  Worth.  That  is  a  very  important  passage. 
It  refers  to  the  buildings  in  which  the  school  of  the  prophets 
assembled  for  instruction. 

But  Saul's  relentless  hate  toward  David  manifested  itself 
in  this  place  of  refuge.  Hearing  that  David  was  there,  he 
sent  messengers  to  take  him,  but  when  the  messengers 
came  within  the  orbit  of  influence  of  that  school  of  the 
prophets  the  spirit  of  the  prophets  fell  on  the  messengers 
and  they  prophesied.  This  happened  three  times  in  suc- 
cession. Finally  Saul  came  himself,  and  it  fell  on  him  so 
violently  that  he   tore  off  his   outer   clothing  and  in  an 


122  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

ecstasy  of  prophesying  fell  down  in  a  trance  before  Samuel 
and  remained  in  that  helpless  condition  all  night  long. 

The  compliment  to  Naioth  is  this:  A  nuimber  of  God's 
people,  together  studying  His  word,  filled  with  His  Spirit, 
the  spiritual  atmosphere  of  the  place  becomes  a  bar  against 
the  approach  of  evil.  The  evil-minded  who  come  to  mock 
remain  to  pray.  I  have  seen  revival  meetings  get  to  such 
power  that  emissaries  of  the  devil,  children  of  Belial,  who 
would  come  there  to  break  up  the  meeting,  would  be  over- 
powered by  its  force.  That  was  notably  illustrated  in  the 
early  days  of  Methodism,  and  particularly  in  the  rise  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterians.  My  son  has  given  a  very  vivid 
account  of  that  time,  and  of  how  wicked  men  would  be 
seized  with  jerks  and  finally  fall  helpless  into  a  trance  when 
they  attended  these  revival  meetings. 

The  main  points  of  David's  next  attempt  at  self-protec- 
tion are  as  follows:  Doubtless  through  Samuel's  advice, 
David,  while  Saul  lay  in  that  trance,  left  Naioth  and  went 
back  to  make  another  appeal  to  Jonathan.  The  reason 
that  he  did  this  was  that  Jonathan,  in  his  first  intercession 
in  behalf  of  David,  had  succeeded  in  pacifying  the  wrath 
of  his  father  toward  him.  Their  meeting  is  graphically 
described  in  the  text.  There  isn't  a  more  touching  passage 
in  any  piece  of  history  than  Jonathan's  solemn  promise 
that  if  his  father  meant  evil  that  he  would  inform  David, 
and  the  plan  they  arranged  to  test  whether  Jonathan's  sec- 
ond attempt  would  be  successful. 

With  the  Jews  the  new  moon  was  a  Sabbath,  no  matter 
on  what  day  of  the  week  it  came,  and  they  had  a  festival, 
and  there  was  one  just  ahead.  On  these  new  moon  festivals 
all  of  the  official  household  of  Saul  had  to  be  present,  so 
it  was  arranged  that  when  Saul  observed  that  David's  place 
was  vacant  at  that  festival  and  he  made  inquiry  about  it, 
Jonathan  would  say,  "He  asked  me  to  give  him  permission  to 
go  to  his  brother's  house  and  partake  in  the  new  moon  sacri- 


SAUL'S  PURSUIT  OF  DAVID  ns 

fices  at  home  with  his  family,"  then  if  Saul  manifested  no 
anger,  that  would  be  a  sign  that  David  could  return.  So 
on  the  second  day  of  the  new  moon  festival,  Saul  looked 
around,  and  seeing  David's  seat  empty  on  such  an  important 
occasion,  directly  asked  Jonathan  where  he  was,  and  Jona- 
than told  him,  according  to  the  arrangement  made  with 
David,  at  which  Saul  became  furious  against  Jonathan  and 
denounced  him  in  awful  language,  and  when  Jonathan 
makes  his  last  appeal,  Saul  hurls  a  javelin  at  him.  Jonathan, 
insulted,  outraged,  gets  up  and  leaves  the  table  and  goes 
out  and  shows  David  that  it  will  never  do  to  return  to  Saul, 
that  he  must  seek  refuge  elsewhere,  and  they  renew  their 
covenant.  Jonathan  says,  ''I  know  you  will  be  king,  and  I 
will  be  next  to  you,  and  when  you  arei  king  be  good  to  my 
family."  We  will  have  some  sad  history  on  that  later, 
about  whether  David  did  fulfill  his  solemn  pledge  to  Jona- 
than to  be  good  to  Jonathan's  family  when  David  had  the 
power. 

David  next  seeks  refuge  at  Nob,  where  the  priests  and 
the  tabernacle  were — not  the  Ark — that  was  at  Kirjath- 
jearim — but  the  priests  were  assembled  in  the  village  of 
Nob  with  the  high  priest.  David  came,  and  did  not  relate 
to  the  priests  the  malice  of  Saul  toward  him,  but  came  worn 
out,  exhausted,  famished  with  hunger,  and  the  priest  gives 
him  to  eat  of  the  shew  bread,  unlawful  for  any  but  a  priest 
to  eat.  The  priest  inquires  through  the  Ephod  what  David 
wants  to  find  out  from  Jehovah,  and  gives  to  him  the  sword 
of  Goliath.  You  know  I  gave  you  a  direction  to  trace  that 
sword  of  Goliath's ;  to  ascertain  what  became  of  it.  It  had 
been  carried  to  the  tabernacle  at  Nob,  and  the  priest  gave 
it  to  David.  David  left  there  because  he  saw  a  rascal  in 
the  crowd,  Doeg,  the  Edomite,  one  of  Saul's  "lick-spittle" 
followers,  and  he  said  to  the  high  priest,  "That  fellow  will 
tell  all  of  this  to  Saul  when  he  gets  back  home." 

The  New  Testament  reference  to  that  is  when  the  Phari- 


lU  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

sees  were  springing  questions  on  our  Lord  He  showed  them 
that  the  Sabbath  law,  Hke  other  laws,  always  had  exceptions 
in  cases  of  judgment,  mercy  and  necessity.  Though  it  be 
the  Sabbath  day  when  a  man  found  an  ass  crushed  under 
his  burden  or  an  ox  in  the  ditch,  he  must  work  to  relieve 
that  poor  beast,  so,  while  it  was  against  the  law  for  anybody 
but  a  priest  to  eat  the  shew  bread,  yet,  in  a  case  of  necessity, 
David  being  famished,  the  priest  did  right  to  give  him  the 
shew  bread  and  he  did  right  to  eat  it. 

What  the  result?  We  learn  that  when  this  Doeg  went 
back  and  told  Saul,  he  sent  for  the  whole  family  of  the 
priests  and  they  came,  and  he  demanded  why  they  had  shel- 
tered and  fed  his  enemy  and  used  the  Ephod  in  his  behalf. 
The  high  priest  explained.  Saul  told  him  that  everyone  of 
them  should  die,  but  he  could  find  no  officer  who  would  put 
them  to  death.  It  seemed  to  be  sacrilegious,  until  Doeg, 
this  Edomite,  took  great  pleasure  in  killing  the  last  one  of 
them.  Then  Saul  sent  and  destroyed,  root  and  branch, 
women  and  children,  the  entire  village  and  all  the  priests 
at  Nob. 

David's  next  attempt  to  find  a  refuge  failed,  but  he  suc- 
ceeded later.  He  went  to  Achish,  the  king  of  the  Philistines 
at  Gath,  and  they  were  not  ready  to  greet  him.  They  be- 
lieved that  he  came  upon  an  evil  mission.  They  said  he 
was  the  man  that  had  brought  all  the  ruin  on  the  Philistines, 
concerning  whom  the  women  sang,  "Saul  hath  slain  his 
thousands,  and  David  his  ten  thousands."  To  preserve  him- 
self from  the  danger  of  death  that  threatened  him  he  feigned 
madness,  and  so  deceived  the  king.  A  North  American  In- 
dian would  have  done  the  same  thing.  They  never  shoot  or 
strike  the  insane,  believing  them  under  the  hand  of  a  spirit. 

David's  next  effort  at  self -protection  was  at  the  cave  of 
Adullam,  and  the  record  states  that  everyone  that  was  in 
distress  or  in  debt  or  discontented  gathered  unto  him  and 
he  became  a  captain  over  them.    Quite  a  number  of  mighty 


SAUL'S  PURSUIT  OF  DAVID  125 

men,  the  greatest  fighters  then  known  to  the  world,  came  to 
him.  A  company  came  to  him  from  Judah  and  Benjamin ; 
his  father's  household  came,  fearing  that  Saul  would  destroy 
them,  so  that  he  organized  a  fighting  force  of  four  hundred 
men  that  has  never  been  equaled  by  the  same  number  of 
men.  A  little  later  we  will  see  that  it  had  grown  to  600 
men  by  other  accessions.  All  of  them  were  heroes  and 
great  fighters.  Then  there  came  to  him  Abiathar,  the  last 
one  of  the  high  priest's  family  when  Saul  had  destroyed 
the  village  of  Nob,  and  there  came  to  him  some  of  the 
prophets,  especially  Gad,  who  remains  with  him  all  the 
time,  and  who  wrote  a  part  of  the  history  we  are  discussing. 

So  that  cave  was  the  scene  of  the  change  in  the  fortunes 
of  David.  It  makes  little  difference  now  whether  he  stays 
in  Judah  or  goes  anywhere  else  with  that  crowd  back  of 
him ;  nobody  is  able  to  harm  him.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
he  took  his  father  and  mother,  who  were  old  and  couldn't 
move  swiftly  with  his  fighting  force,  over  to  Moab,  across 
the  Jordan,  doubtless  relying  upon  the  fact  that  Ruth,  the 
Moabitess,  was  an  ancestor  of  his,  and  the  king  of  Moab 
sheltered  the  father  and  mother  of  David;  but  Gad,  the 
prophet,  admonishes  David  to  leave  Moab  and  go  back 
to  Judah.  God  would  take  care  of  him  in  his  own  land  if 
he  trusted  Him,  and  so  he  went  back  to  Judah. 

In  view  of  Moab's  kindness  to  David's  family,  the  Jews 
acquit  David  of  the  severe  measures  adopted  by  him  toward 
the  Moabites  at  a  later  day,  to  the  history  of  which  we  will 
come  later.  They  say  that  the  king  of  Moab  murdered 
David's  father  and  mother  who  had  been  left  in  his  charge, 
and  that  David  swept  them  with  fire  and  sword  for  it  when 
he  got  to  them. 

The  great  sermons  in  our  day  which  have  been  preached 
on  this  part  of  David's  career  are:  (i)  Melville's  sermon  on 
David's  feigning  madness  at  the  court  of  Achish.  A  re- 
markable sermon.     (2)    Spurgeon's  great  sermon  on  the 


126  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Cave  of  Adullam  from  the  text,  "And  every  one  that  was  in 
distress,  and  every  one  that  was  in  debt,  and  every  one  that 
was  discontented,  gathered  themselves  unto  him,  and  he 
became  a  captain  over  them."  Spurgeon  used  that  to  illus- 
trate how  a  similar  class  of  people  gathered  around  Christ, 
and  He  became  a  captain  over  them.  Every  one  that  was 
in  debt,  or  distress,  or  sick,  or  poverty-stricken,  whatever 
the  ailment,  or  in  despair  about  the  affairs  of  life,  came  to 
Jesus  and  He  became  a  captain  over  them.  It  is  a  great 
sermon. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Trace  in  the  Old  Testament  the  usage  of  the  word,  "teraphim," 
which  occurs  in  chapter  19:  13:  "And  Michal  took  the  teraphim,  and 
laid  it  in  the  bed,  and  put  a  pillow  of  goat's  hair  at  the  head  thereof 
and  covered  it  with  the  clothes,"  answering  the  following  questions : 
(i)  Is  the  word,  "teraphim,"  ever  used  in  a  good  sense?  (2)  What 
was  it?  (3)  Was  its  use  a  violation  of  the  first  or  second  command- 
ment? (4)  What  is  the  meaning  of  such  an  image  being  in  David's 
house?  (5)  Show  how  in  history  the  use  of  images  became  a  dividing 
line  between  Romanists  and  Protestants,  and  what  the  danger  of  their 
use,  even  as  a  help  toward  the  worship  of  God. 

2.  What  bearing  has  Michal's  teraphim  on  her  wifely  relation 
to  David,  and  what  the  proofs  in  later  times  ?  Reconcile  II  Sam.  6 :  2^ 
with  II  Sam.  21 :  8. 

3.  Fleeing  from  Saul,  with  whom  does  David  rightly  seek  refuge, 
and  what  the  distinction  between  Ramah  and  Naioth  in  chap. 
19:  18, 19? 

4.  How  does  Saul's  relentless  hate  toward  David  manifest  itself 
in  this  place  of  refuge,  what  the  result,  and  what  the  compliment 
to  Naioth? 

5.  Give  the  main  points  of  David's  next  attempt  at  self-protection, 
show  why  he  resorted  to  it,  and  what  the  issue. 

6.  With  whoni  next  does  David  seek  refuge,  what  the  main 
incidents,  what  the  New  Testament  reference  thereto,  why  did  David 
leave  that  refuge,  and  what  the  results  to  the  priests  for  sheltering 
him? 

7.  What  was  David's  next  attempt  to  find  a  refuge,  why  did  it  fail 
this  time  but  succeed  later,  what  was  David's  expedient  to  escape 
from  the  danger,  and  why  did  that  expedient  succeed? 

8.  What  was  David's  next  effort  at  self-protection,  what  accessions 
came  to  him,  and  what  was  the  result  on  his  future  fortunes? 

9.  In  view  of  the  Moab's  kindness  to  David's  family,  how  do  the 
Jews  acquit  David  of  the  severe  measures  adopted  by  him  toward 
the  Moabites  at  a  later  day? 

10.  What  great  sermons  in  our  day  have  been  preached  on  this 
part  of  David's  career? 


XIII 


DAVID    AND    HIS    INDEPENDENT    ARMY;    THE 
END  OF  THE  DUEL  WITH  SAUL 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  91-96 

THIS  section  is  very  thrilling,  containing  many  stirring 
adventures  and  hair-breadth  escapes,  showing  the 
play  of  the  mighty  passions  of  love  and  hate,  and 
treachery  and  loyalty.  It  contains  the  farewell  between 
David  and  Jonathan  in  their  last  interview;  the  farewell 
between  David  and  Saul;  the  death  of  Samuel  and  the  en- 
gaging story  of  David  and  Abigail.  No  novel  that  I  have 
ever  read  has  incidents  so  romantic  in  nature  as  this  section. 
The  turn  in  the  fortunes  of  David  comes  at  the  Cave  of 
Adullam.  He  is  no  longer  a  solitary  fugitive.  His  helpers 
were: 

1.  An  armed  corps,  small  indeed  in  number,  but  un- 
equaled  in  history  as  a  mobile  fighting  force,  who  had  gath- 
ered around  him.  Never  before  nor  since  have  more  heroes 
and  champions  been  found  in  a  band  of  400,  rapidly  re- 
cruited to  600.  As  is  quite  natural,  some  of  them  are  both 
desperate  and  evil  characters.  They  harbor  in  caves  or 
sleep  under  rocks,  and  from  the  mountain  tops,  like  eagles 
in  their  eyries,  survey  all  the  mountain  passes,  ready  to 
swoop  down  on  their  Philistine-prey  or  to  make  timely 
escape  from  Saul's  forces,  which  they  will  not  fight  through 
David's  loyalty. 

2.  The  son  of  the  high  priest  with  the  Ephod,  fleeing 
from  Saul's  murderous  slaughter  of  his  brethren  at  Nob, 
has  turned  to  David,  supplying  his  greatest  need,  that  is, 

127 


128  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

a  means  of  communication  with  Jehovah,  now  forever  denied 
to  Saul.  Through  this  means  he  easily  learns  what  no 
earthly  wisdom  or  system  of  espionage  could  discover — the 
very  hearts  and  secret  purposes  of  his  enemies. 

3.  The  school  of  the  prophets,  Jehovah's  mouthpieces, 
are  for  him,  and  Gad,  their  great  representative,  acts  as  his 
daily  counsellor — Gad  who  shall  become  one  of  the  histo- 
rians of  his  life. 

David  at  this  time  evinced  the  most  exalted  patriotism. 
Though  pursued  by  Saul's  relentless  hate,  he  never  at  any 
time,  employs  his  fighting  force  against  Israel,  nor  ever 
harms  Saul's  person,  though  it  is  twice  within  his  power, 
but  ever  watching,  he  protects  defenceless  cities  of  his 
people  by  smiting  their  Philistine  invaders,  preserves  the 
exposed  farms  and  folds  of  the  villages  from  their  maraud- 
ing bands.  Not  all  Saul's  army  is  such  a  defence  of  Israel 
as  David's  immortal  600.  And  this  he  did  continuously, 
though  every  blow  he  struck  for  his  people  only  advertised 
his  whereabouts  to  Saul,  and  brought  on  immediately  a 
man-hunt  by  Saul  and  his  army.  There  is  no  parallel  to 
these  facts  in  history.  If,  when  the  "swamp-fox,"  Francis 
Marion,  by  creeping  out  of  his  secret  places  of  retirement 
advertised  his  whereabouts  by  smiting  a  British  or  Tory 
force,  Washington,  Gates,  Greene  or  Morgan  had  detached 
a  flying  column  to  cut  off  Marion,  then  that  would  have 
been  a  parallel. 

An  example  of  this  patriotism  of  David,  and  the  ungrate- 
ful return  to  him  is  found  in  this  section.  From  it  we  learn 
that  when  David,  at  a  hazard  so  great  that  his  own  daunt- 
less champions  advised  against  it,  under  the  guidance  of 
Jehovah  left  the  safer  territory  of  Judah  and  braved  with 
his  600  the  whole  Philistine  army  to  rescue  Keilah,  Saul, 
informed  of  his  presence  there,  summoned  his  whole  army 
to  besiege  David  in  that  city,  and  only  through  timely  knowl- 
edge, communicated  through  the  high  priest's  Ephod,  did 


DAVID  AND  HIS  ARMY  129 

David  escape  the  enmity  of  Saul  and  the  purposed  treachery 
of  the  men  of  Keilah  whom  he  had  just  preserved. 

A  parallel  in  later  days  shows  that  information  from 
Jehovah  concerning  the  secret  purposes  of  men  eclipsed  all 
knowledge  to  be  derived  from  spies,  and  so  saved  the  king 
of  Israel.  This  parallel  we  find  in  II  Kings  6:8-12.  The 
king  of  Syria,  at  war  with  the  king  of  Israel  (by  Israel  in 
that  place  is  meant  the  ten  tribes  that  went  off  from  Reho- 
boam),  in  private  counsel  with  his  officers,  would  designate 
a  place  where  he  would  establish  his  camps  in  order  to 
entrap  the  king  of  Israel.  As  soon  as  he  had  designated 
where  these  trap-camps  would  be  placed,  Elisha,  God's 
prophet,  sent  information  to  the  king  of  Israel  to  beware 
of  these  places,  and  thus  more  than  twice  the  king  of  Israel 
was  saved.  The  king  of  Syria  supposed  that  there  was  a 
traitor  in  his  own  camp,  and  wanted  to  know  who  it  was 
that  betrayed  every  movement  that  he  made.  One  of  his 
counsellors  replied  that  there  was  no  traitor  in  his  camp, 
but  that  Elisha,  God's  prophet,  knew  every  secret  thought 
of  the  king's  bed-chamber. 

I  now  call  attention  to  the  text-difficulty  in  I  Sam.  23 : 6. 
The  text  here  says  that  Abiathar,  the  son  of  Ahimelech, 
had  joined  David  at  Keilah,  but  chapter  22 :  20-23  shows 
that  Abiathar  had  previously  joined  David  at  the  Cave  of 
Adullam.  The  context  just  above  verse  6  shows  that  David 
had  inquired  of  the  high  priest  as  to  whether  he  should 
go  to  the  rescue  of  Keilah.  The  word,  "Keilah,"  in  verse  6 
ought  therefore  to  be  struck  out,  or  else  ought  to  follow 
the  text  of  the  Septuagint,  which  reads  this  way:  "And  it 
came  to  pass  when  Abiathar,  the  son  of  Ahimelech,  fled  to 
David,  that  he  went  down  with  David  to  Keilah  with  the 
Ephod  in  his  hand."  That  makes  complete  sense  and  retains 
the  word  "Keilah." 

David's  next  refuge  from  Saul,  the  description  of  Saul's 
pursuit,  and  Jehovah's  deliverance,  are  described  in  just 


130  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

two  verses  of  the  text,  23:14,  15:  "And  David  abode  in 
the  wilderness  in  strongholds  and  remained  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  Ziph,  and  Saul  sought  him  every  day,  but  God  deliv- 
ered him  not  into  Saul's  hands.  And  David  saw  that  Saul 
was  come  out  to  seek  his  life,  and  David  was  in  the  wilder- 
ness of  Ziph  in  a  wood."  That  does  not  mean  any  big  trees. 
It  means  thick  brush — scrubby  brush — as  may  be  seen  on 
West  Texas  mountains — shin-oak  thickets.  I  have  seen 
them  so  thick  it  looked  like  one  couldn't  stick  a  butcher 
knife  in  them,  and  woe  to  the  man  who  tried  to  ride  through 
them! 

Just  here  comes  Jonathan's  last  interview  with  David, 
which  is  given  in  three  verses,  23:16-18.  While  Saul  is 
every  day  beating  that  brush  to  find  David  and  can't  find 
him,  Jonathan  finds  him  and  comes  to  show  him  that  he  has 
no  part  in  this  murderous  pursuit  of  his  friend;  comes  to 
tell  him  that  both  he  and  his  father  know  that  David  will 
triumph  and  become  king,  and  to  make  a  covenant  with  him 
again  that  when  he  is  king  he  will  remember  Jonathan's 
house. 

Let  us  now  take  up  David's  first  escape  from  the  treach- 
ery of  the  Ziphites,  and  how  that  escape  was  commemorated. 
Saul  couldn't  find  David  in  that  wood,  but  the  Ziphites  (for 
it  was  in  the  wood  of  Ziph)  knew  where  he  was,  and  they 
told  Saul  where  he  was,  and  so  Saul,  guided  by  these  treach- 
erous Ziphites,  summoned  an  army,  completely  surrounded 
the  whole  country,  and  at  last  got  David,  as  it  were,  in  a 
cul-de-sac.  That  French  phrase  means,  to  follow  a  road 
where  all  egress  is  blocked,  forward  or  sideways.  So  there 
was  just  a  mountain  between  Saul  and  David,  and  Saul's 
army  was  all  around  and  closing  in.  The  deliverance  comes 
providentially.  Word  is  brought  to  Saul  that  the  Philistines 
are  striking  at  some  place  in  his  territory,  and  he  has  to  call 
his  army  ofT  just  before  he  closes  up  the  trap  around  David 
and  go  and  fight  the  Philistines ;  and  your  record  says  that 


DAVID  AND  HIS  ARMY  131 

place  is  renamed  in  commemoration  this  simple  word,  **Sela- 
hammahlekoth,"  which  means  ''the  rock  of  escape."  If  you 
were  to  visit  the  place  the  guide  will  show  you  today  ''Sela- 
hammahlekoth" — the  rock  of  escape. 

David's  next  refuge  from  Saul  was  at  the  town  of  Engedi. 
The  name  is  today  preserved  in  the  Aramaic  form,  "Ain 
Jidy."  It  is  thought  to  be  the  oldest  town  in  the  world.  The 
Genesis  record  of  the  days  of  Abraham  says  that  Chedor- 
laomer  led  his  army  by  Engedi.  It  was  a  town  whose  in- 
habitants saw  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
lying  right  below  in  the  valley.  It  has  been  passed  by  a 
thousand  armies.  It  means  the  "fountain  of  goats."  Burst- 
ing out  of  the  mountain  side  is  a  spring  of  considerable  vol- 
ume, and  from  that  flows  the  stream  "Engedi,"  which,  with 
two  others,  makes  a  little  oasis  there  just  above  the  Dead 
Sea — one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world;  the  finest 
vines,  the  most  beautiful  palm  trees,  and  right  up  above, 
on  the  mountain  side,  are  hundreds  of  caves,  some  of  them 
so  deep  that  they  are  as  dark  as  the  pit  right  at  the  mouth. 
A  man  standing  in  the  light  at  the  entrance  cannot  see  any- 
thing within,  but  one  hidden  back  a  Httle  distance  can  see  dis- 
tinctly anybody  coming  in.  Nearly  everybody  that  visits  the 
Holy  Land  makes  a  pilgrimage  to  these  famous  caves,  and 
if  you  are  disposed  to  read  the  results  of  modern  research 
with  reference  to  the  place  you  will  find  some  very  fine  ref- 
erences in  the  following  books :  Thompson's  "Land  and  the 
Book,"  from  which  we  have  had  quotations;  Robinson's 
"Researches  in  Bible  Lands;"  Tristan's  "Land  of  Israel;" 
and  one  of  the  best  is  McGarvey's  "Travels  in  the  Holy 
Land.'*  McGarvey  is  a  Disciples  theologian  in  Kentucky, 
and  his  is  about  the  best  book  on  the  Holy  Land  extant. 
You  will  also  find  a  very  graphic  account  of  these  caves  in 
Stanley's  "Sinai  and  Palestine."  The  record  tells  us  that 
Saul,  in  pursuit  of  David,  while  his  army  is  scattered  about 
searching  for  him,  comes  to  one  of  these  caves,  and  enters 


132  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

in,  and  David  is  in  there  at  the  time  with  some  of  his  brav- 
est men,  and  he,  being  in  the  dark,  can  see  Saul  plainly,  and 
slips  up  and  cuts  off  a  piece  of  Saul's  cloak.  One  of  his 
men  wants  him  to  kill  Saul :  "Now  is  your  chance ;  this  is 
the  chance  God  has  promised  you;  your  enemy  is  in  your 
power;  smite  him."  But  David  would  not  do  so.  When 
Saul  goes  out  of  the  cave  David  slips  to  the  front,  and  from 
a  high  rock  holds  up  that  piece  of  skirt  and  calls  to  Saul, 
your  text  telling  better  than  I  can  the  thrilling  way  he 
reproached  Saul  for  his  pursuit  of  him,  that  he  has  never 
done  him  any  harm,  and  that  Saul  was  pursuing  him  to 
death  without  any  cause. 

We  now  come  to  a  strange  but  certainly  true  thing.  I 
will  read  what  David  said  and  Saul's  reply.  It  is  Saul's 
reply  that  I  want  you  to  particularly  notice.  David  said, 
"Wherefore  hearest  thou  men's  words  saying,  Behold  David 
seeketh  thy  hurt,"  then  closes  up  by  saying,  "The  Lord  judge 
between  me  and  thee,  and  the  Lord  avenge  me  of  thee,  but 
my  hand  shall  not  be  upon  thee."  Listen  at  Saul's  reply: 
"Thou  art  more  righteous  than  I" — standing  there  weeping 
now  and  saying  this — "for  that  thou  hast  rewarded  me 
good,  whereas  I  have  rewarded  thee  evil;  and  thou  hast 
showed  this  day  how  that  thou  hast  dealt  well  with  me, 
forasmuch  as  when  the  Lord  had  delivered  me  into  thy 
hand  thou  killedst  me  not ;  for  if  a  man  findest  his  enemy, 
will  he  let  him  go  well  away;  wherefore  the  Lord  reward 
thee  good  for  what  thou  hast  done  unto  me  this  day.  And 
now,  behold  I  know  well  that  thou  shalt  surely  be  king 
and  that  the  kingdom  of  Israel  shall  be  established  in  thine 
hand;  swear  thou  therefore,  unto  me  by  the  Lord  that  thou 
wilt  not  cut  off  my  seed  after  me,  and  that  thou  wilt  not 
destroy  my  name  out  of  my  father's  house."  That  sounded 
like  penitence,  but  it  was  not.  If  it  was  you  would  not  see 
Saul  pursuing  him  again,  but  it  was  temporary  remorse, 
such  as  wicked  men  often  evince.     It  is  an  Oriental  cus- 


DAVID  AND  HIS  ARMY  133 

torn  that  when  a  new  king  comes  in  he  kills  all  the  family 
of  the  one  he  succeeds,  and  that  is  what  Saul  fears, 
and  David  never  did  kill  any  of  them  after  he  became 
king. 

It  is  evident  from  24 : 9  and  26 :  19  that  some  persistent, 
insidious  slanderer,  ever  at  Saul's  side,  kept  his  wrath  stirred 
up  against  David,  and  like  a  sinister  lago  played  upon  Saul's 
weakness,  ever  fanning  by  whisperings  the  flame  of  his 
jealousy.  You  would  never  know  the  name  of  this  secret 
assassin  of  character  from  the  history.  But  his  name  and 
character  are  pilloried  in  the  immortal  songs  of  his  would-be 
victim,  and  all  the  vileness  of  his  demoniacal  nature  memo- 
rialized to  the  end  of  time.  What  is  his  name,  and  in  what 
song  commemorated?  Just  at  this  juncture  Samuel,  the 
great  prophet — the  greatest  man  next  to  Moses  since  Abra- 
ham's day,  dies.  Later  we  will  have  an  analysis  of  his 
character. 

An  example  of  David's  protection  of  the  villages  and 
farms  is  seen  in  the  case  of  the  rich  man  named  Nabal 
("Nabal"  means  "fool"),  about  whom  his  wife  says  later, 
"His  name  is  Nabal  and  he  is  Nabal."  There  wouldn't 
have  been  a  sheep  left  in  his  flock  nor  a  cow  left  to  give 
him  milk  but  for  the  protection  extended  by  David's  band. 
The  herdsmen  say,  "David's  band  has  been  a  wall  about 
us."  David's  men  never  took  any  of  his  property.  Hungry 
though  they  were,  they  never  killed  one  of  his  sheep  nor 
one  of  his  cattle.  Passing  bands  of  marauders  would  have 
swept  away  every  vestige  of  his  property,  but  David's  men 
beat  them  off. 

Now,  on  a  festival,  sheep-shearing  day,  David's  men, 
being  weary  and  hungry,  David  sends  ten  men  to  Nabal, 
giving  him  an  opportunity  to  at  least  feed  one  time  the  men 
that  had  protected  him  for  the  year,  and  Nabal's  reply  is: 
"What  is  the  son  of  Jesse  to  me  that  I  should  take  my 
property  and  feed  his  straggling  crowd?'*    There  are  such 


134  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

rich  men  now,  and  no  wonder  they  are  hated.  There  was 
a  time  in  the  early  history  of  Texas  when  volunteer  rangers 
protected  all  the  exposed  settlements  with  their  flocks  and 
herds.  A  man  whose  home  and  stock  had  been  so  preserved, 
who  would  deny  hospitality  to  the  unpaid  rangers  would 
have  been  held  as  infamous.  Indeed,  in  all  our  West  Texas 
history  there  never  was  one  Nabal. 

These  ten  men  went  back  and  reported  to  David,  and 
this  time  he  didn't  consult  either  priest  or  prophet,  but, 
boiling  over  in  wrath,  announced  his  purpose  of  not  leaving 
a  man  alive  in  Nabal's  entire  household,  and  goes  to  smite 
him  with  400  of  his  picked  men.  One  of  the  servants  of 
Nabal  had  apprehended  just  such  a  state  of  affairs  and  had 
told  Abigail,  the  wife  of  Nabal,  whereupon  she,  recognizing 
David  as  God's  anointed,  as  the  champion  of  Israel,  as  the 
one  about  whom  all  true  souls  should  be  thinking,  having 
faith  in  the  promises  of  God  concerning  him,  took  a  mag- 
nificent donation  and  hurried  with  it  and  met  David  coming 
blazing  in  wrath.  The  woman  leaped  down  from  the  beast 
she  was  riding  and  made  a  speech  that  has  never  yet  had 
an  equal. 

You  remember  how  I  called  your  attention  to  the  famous 
speech  in  Scott's  "Heart  of  Midlothian"  by  Jeanie  Deans, 
but  this  beats  that.  I  haven't  time  to  analyze  the  speech; 
you  have  the  record  of  it  before  you,  but  there  never  was 
more  wisdom  put  into  a  few  words.  She  shows  David  that 
the  wrong  done  is  inexcusable,  but  tells  him  to  charge  it  to 
her,  although  she  had  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  tells  him  that 
so  great  a  man  as  he  is,  God's  vicegerent,  should  not  take 
vengeance  in  his  own  hands ;  that  the  day  will  come  in  his 
later  life  when  he  will  look  back  with  regret  at  the  blood 
on  his  hands  if  he  takes  such  a  vengeance,  and  asks  him  to 
leave  Nabal's  punishment  to  God.  David  was  charmed  with 
her  and  did  everything  she  said.  She  went  back  home  sad 
at  heart,  as  many  a  good  woman  married  to  a  bad  man  has 


DAVID  AND  HIS  ARMY  135 

to  do.  Nabal  was  on  a  spree.  She  didn't  tell  him  any- 
thing until  the  next  mornings  and  as  she  told  him  what  had 
transpired  God  smote  him  with  apoplexy  and  a  few  days 
later — about  ten  days — smote  him  again  so  that  he  died, 
whereupon  David  sends  for  Abigail  and  marries  her  and  at 
the  same  time  marries  another  woman,  plurality  of  wives 
prevailing  in  that  day.  Many  preachers  have  preached  ser- 
mons, some  of  them  foolish  and  some  of  them  really  great, 
on  "Nabal,  the  churl." 

The  incidents  of  the  last  meeting  of  Saul  and  David  are 
pathetic.  The  Ziphites  conspire  again  against  David,  and 
tell  Saul  where  to  find  him.  David  sends  out  his  spies  and 
learns  of  Saul's  approach  and  easily  evades  him;  then, 
taking  just  one  man  with  him,  Abishai,  the  fiery  son  of  his 
sister  Zeruiah,  his  nephew  (you  will  hear  about  him  often- 
times later),  goes  into  the  camp  of  Saul  with  his  3,000 
picked  veterans.  Saul  is  sleeping,  and  Abner,  his  great  gen- 
eral, sleeping  by  him,  and  Abishai,  following  his  nature,  says, 
"Now  let  me  kill  him."  David  says,  "No,  you  shall  not 
strike  him;  he  is  the  anointed  king;  leave  him  to  God," 
and  simply  took  Saul's  spear  and  cruse — his  water  vessel 
— and  when  he  had  got  out  of  the  camp  he  cried  out  to 
Abner  and  mocked  him :  "What  a  guardian  of  your  king, 
that  you  let  somebody  come  right  into  your  camp  and  come 
right  up  to  the  person  of  your  king!  Behold  the  spear 
and  cruse  of  Saul !  You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself." 
Saul  hears  David,  and  now  comes  that  strange  language 
again.  I  want  you  to  notice  it  again:  "And  Saul  knew 
David's  voice,  and  said,  Ts  this  thy  voice,  my  son  David?' 
(as  you  know,  David  was  his  son-in-law).  And  David 
said,  Tt  is  my  voice,  my  lord,  O  king.'  And  he  said,  'Where- 
fore doth  my  lord  pursue  after  his  servant?  for  what  have 
I  done?  or  what  evil  is  in  mine  hand?  Now  therefore,  I 
pray  thee,  let  my  lord  the  king  hear  the  words  of  his  ser- 
vant.    If  Jehovah  hath  stirred  thee  up  against  me  let  Him 


136  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

accept  an  offering:  but  if  it  be  the  children  of  men,  cursed 
be  they  before  Jehovah/  " 

Now  comes  a  passage  that  we  will  have  to  explain  in 
the  next  chapter:  "For  they  have  driven  me  out  this  day 
from  abiding  in  the  inheritance  of  Jehovah,  saying,  Go, 
serve  other  gods.  Now  therefore,  let  not  my  blood  fall  to 
the  earth  before  the  face  of  Jehovah,  for  the  king  of  Israel 
is  come  to  seek  a  flea,  as  when  one  doth  hunt  a  partridge 
in  the  mountains."  This  is  a  very  undignified  thing  for  a 
king  to  do — to  go  out  flea-hunting;  go  to  chasing  a  part- 
ridge. "Partridge"  there  is  what  we  call  a  "blue  quail." 
They  seldom  fly,  but  they  can  run,  and  anyone  who  hunts 
them  has  to  be  very  fast ;  hence  the  beauty  of  the  illustra- 
tion. Saul  says,  "I  have  sinned."  (You  remember  he  said 
that  to  Samuel.)  "Return,  my  son  David,  for  I  will  no 
more  do  thee  harm,  because  my  soul  was  precious  in  thine 
eyes  this  day,  and  behold  I  have  played  the  fool,  and  have 
erred  exceedingly."  David  didn't  trust  him.  Saul  con- 
cludes, "Blessed  be  thou,  my  son,  David;  for  thou  shalt 
both  do  great  things  and  also  shalt  prevail."  So  David 
went  his  own  way,  and  Saul  returned  to  his  place.  They 
never  meet  again.  The  pursuit  is  ended.  We  end  this 
chapter  with  the  end  of  the  duel  between  Saul  and  David. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  the  interest  of  this  section? 

2.  From  what  point  and  place  comes  the  turn  in  the  fortunes  of 
David,  and  who  were  his  helpers  ? 

3.  How  does  David  at  this  time  evince  the  most  exalted  patriotism  ? 

4.  What  parallel  in  history  to  these  facts? 

5.  Cite  an  example  of  this  patriotism  of  David,  and  show  the 
ungrateful  return  to  him? 

6.  Cite  a  parallel  in  later  days  to  show  that^  information  from 
Jehovah  concerning  the  secret  purposes  of  men  eclipsed  all  knowledge 
to  be  derived  from  spies,  and  so  saved  the  king  of  Israel. 

7.  Explain  the  text-difficulty  in  I  Sam.  23 :  6. 

8.  Where  was  David's  next  refuge  from  Saul,  what  the  description 
of  Saul's  pursuit,  and  what  Jehovah's  deliverance? 

9.  Describe  Jonathan's  last  interview  with  David. 


DAVID  AND  HIS  ARMY  137 

10.  Describe  David's  first  escape  from  the  treachery  of  the 
Ziphites,  and  how  that  escape  was  commemorated. 

11.  What  was  David's  next  refuge  from  Saul,  what  the  history 
of  the  place,  and  what  has  modern  research  to  say  about  it? 

12.  What  the  events  there,  and  what  illustrations  therefrom? 

13.  What  man,  greatest  next  to  Moses  since  Abraham's  day,  dies 
at  this  juncture? 

14.  Cite  an  example  of  David's  protection  of  the  villages  and 
farms,  giving  the  main  incidents  in  the  thrilling  story  of  David  and 
Abigail,  and  illustrate  by  Texas  free  rangers. 

15.  Describe  the  incidents  of  the  last  meeting  of  Saul  and  David. 


XIV 

ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  96-102 

LET  us  analyze  David's  sin  of  despair,  and  give  the 
train  of  sins  and  embarrassments  that  follow.  The 
first  line  tells  us  of  his  sin  of  despair,  I  Sam.  27 :  i : 
**And  David  said  in  his  heart,  I  shall  now  perish  one  day 
by  the  hand  of  Saul."  It  is  a  sad  thing  to  appear  in  the 
life  of  David,  this  fit  of  the  "blues"  that  came  on  him,  and 
was  utterly  unjustifiable.  In  fact,  he  is  done  with  Saul 
forever.  Saul  will  never  harm  him  again,  and  he  is  very 
late  in  fearing  that  he  will  one  day  perish  by  the  hand  of 
Saul.  It  reminds  us  of  Elijah  under  the  juniper  tree,  pray- 
ing that  he  might  die  in  his  despair,  when  God  never  in- 
tended him  to  die  at  all — ^but  to  take  him  to  heaven  without 
death.  It  was  unjustifiable  because  the  promises  to  him 
were  that  he  should  be  king,  and  he  should  not  have  sup- 
posed that  God's  word  would  fail.  It  is  unjustifiable  be- 
cause up  to  this  time  he  had  been  preserved  from  every 
attack  of  Saul,  and  the  argument  in  his  mind  should  be, 
"I  will  be  preserved  unto  the  end." 

The  distrust  of  God  sometimes  comes  to  the  best  people. 
I  don't  claim  to  be  among  the  best  people.  I  am  an  average 
kind  of  a  man,  trying  my  level  best  to  do  right,  and  generally 
optimistic — and  no  man  is  ever  whipped  until  he  is  whipped 
inside,  and  it  is  a  very  rare  thing  that  I  am  whipped  inside. 
Whenever  I  am  it  lasts  a  very  short  time.  I  don't  stay 
whipped  long.  But  we  may  put  it  down  as  worthy  of  con- 
sideration in  our  future  life  that  whenever  we  get  into  the 

138 


ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA  139 

state  of  mind  the  Israelites  were  in  about  the  Canaanites 
— that  we  are  "mere  grasshoppers  in  their  sight  and  in  our 
own  sight,"  then  our  case  is  pitiable.  Let  us  never  take 
the  grasshopper  view  of  ourselves. 

That  was  the  first  sin,  the  succumbing  of  his  faith;  the 
temporary  eclipsing  of  his  faith.  The  next  sin  is  this: 
*There  is  nothing  better  for  me  than  that  I  should  escape 
into  the  land  of  the  Philistines."  Had  he  forgotten  about 
God?  Had  he  forgotten  that  he  had  tried  that  Philistine 
crowd  once  and  had  to  get  away  from  there  without  delay? 
Had  he  forgotten  when  he  went  over  into  Moab  and  was 
told  by  the  prophet  to  get  back  to  his  own  country?  God 
would  take  care  of  him.  That  sin  is  the  child  of  the 
other. 

His  third  sin  was  that  before  taking  such  a  decisive  step 
he  didn't  ask  God — a  very  unusual  thing  for  him.  Gener- 
ally when  anything  perplexed  him  he  called  for  the  Ephod 
and  the  high  priest  and  asked  the  Lord  what  he  should  do, 
but  he  is  so  unnerved  through  fear  of  Saul  that  he  does  not 
stop  to  ask  what  God  has  to  say,  and  so  that  is  a  twin  to 
the  second  sin,  that  was  born  of  the  original  one.  Without 
consulting  anybody  he  gathers  up  his  followers  with  their 
women,  children  and  everything  that  they  have,  and  goes 
down  to  Gath,  and  there  commits  his  next  sin.  He  makes 
an  alliance  with  the  king  of  Gath  and  becomes  tributary 
to  him. 

That  in  turn  leads  to  another  sin.  He  is  bound  to  fight 
against  the  enemies  of  God's  cause,  and  so,  occupying  a 
town,  Ziklag,  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  Philistine  king, 
he  marches  out  secretly  and  makes  war  on  the  Geshurites 
and  Gizzites  and  Amalekites,  and  for  fear  that  somebody 
would  be  spared  to  tell  the  Philistines  that  he  was  killing 
their  allies,  he  kills  them  all,  men,  women,  and  children. 
Now,  if  he  had  been  carrying  out  a  plan  of  Jehovah  he 
would  have  been  justified,  but  the  record  says  that  he  did 


14>0  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

it  for  fear  that  if  he  left  any  one  of  them  alive  they  would 
report  the  fact  to  King  Achish  of  Gath. 

His  next  sin  is  to  tell  a  lie  about  it.  We  call  it  "duplic- 
ity," but  it  was  a  sure-enough  lie.  He  made  the  impression 
on  Achish's  mind  when  he  went  out  on  this  expedition  that 
he  was  going  against  Judah,  which  pleased  the  Philistine 
king  very  much,  for  if  he  was  fighting  against  Judah,  then 
Judah  would  hate  him  and  the  breach  would  be  widened 
between  him  and  his  own  people. 

We  now  come  to  another  sin.  Each  sin  leads  to  another. 
The  Philistines  determined  to  make  a  decisive  war  against 
Saul,  and  not  to  approach  him  in  the  usual  way,  but  to 
follow  up  the  boundary  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  and  strike 
across  through  the  very  center  of  Palestine  and  cut  the 
nation  in  two  from  the  valley  of  Esdraelon.  So  Achish 
says  to  David,  *'You  must  go  with  us.  You  are  our  guest 
and  ally  and  occupying  a  town  I  gave  you."  So  David 
marches  along  with  his  dauntless  600,  and  evidently  against 
the  will  of  his  own  men,  as  we  will  see  later.  He  does  go 
with  the  Philistines  to  the  very  battlefield,  and  when  they 
get  there  the  Philistines,  seeing  that  he  is  with  the  court  of 
the  king,  object  to  his  presence  and  will  not  allow  him  to 
go  to  the  battle  with  them.  So  he  returned  to  the  land 
of  the  Philistines. 

I  have  no  idea  that  he  ever  intended  to  strike  a  blow 
against  Saul.  I  feel  perfectly  sure  of  it.  When  the  battle 
was  raging  he  would  have  attacked  the  Philistines  in  the 
flank  with  his  600  men,  but  he  made  the  impression  on  the 
mind  of  the  king  that  he  would  fight  with  them  against 
Saul.  The  providence  of  God  kept  him  from  committing 
that  sin. 

These  are  the  six  sins  resulting  from  getting  into  the 
wrong  place  just  one  time.  I  don't  say  he  won't  get  into 
the  place  again,  but  this  time  he  certainly  was  cowed.  A 
man  can't  commit  just  one  sin.     A  sin  can  outbreed  an 


ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA  141 

Australian  rabbit.  The  hunter  sometimes  thinks  he  sees 
just  one  quail,  but  whenever  he  flushes  him,  behold  there 
is  a  pair  or  maybe  a  covey!  There  is  a  proverb  that  who- 
ever tells  a  lie  ought  to  have  a  good  memory,  else  he  will 
tell  some  more  covering  that  one  up,  forgetting  his  first 
statement.  I  am  sorry  to  bring  out  this  charge  against 
David,  but  I  will  have  a  much  bigger  one  to  bring  out  before 
we  are  done  with  him.  He  is  one  of  the  best  men  that  ever 
lived,  but  all  the  good  men  that  I  know  have  their  faults. 

/  have  never  yet  been  blest  with  the  sight  of  a  sinless 
man.  I  know  there  are  some  people  who  claim  to  be  per- 
fect and  sinless,  but  I  don't  know  any  who  really  are. 

A  great  modern  sermon  was  preached  on  this  despair  of 
David,  taking  that  first  line  as  a  text:  'T  shall  one  day 
perish  by  the  hand  of  Saul."  The  preacher  was  John 
McNeil,  who  is  called  the  "modern  Spurgeon."  He  has 
charge  of  one  of  the  livest  churches  in  London  and  has 
published  several  volumes  of  sermons.  This  is  the  first 
in  one  of  his  books,  and  it  is  a  great  one. 

This  sin  of  David  was  punished  in  two  ways.  While  he 
was  off  following  the  Philistines  to  the  battlefield,  these 
same  Amalekites  that  he  had  been  troubling  so  much, 
swooped  down  on  Ziklag — the  town  given  to  David  by 
Achish — and  there  being  no  defenders  present,  nobody  but 
the  women  and  children,  they  burned  the  town.  They 
didn't  kill  any  one,  but  they  took  all  the  women  and  the 
children  and  the  livestock  and  the  furniture  and  everything 
— made  as  clean  a  sweep  as  you  ever  saw,  including  both 
of  David's  wives,  Ahinoam  and  Abigail.  The  second  pun- 
ishment was  that  his  own  men,  who  didn't  want  to  go  up 
with  the  Philistines,  wanted  to  stone  him  for  what  had 
happened  when  he  was  gone.     His  life  was  in  danger. 

But  he  recovered  himself  from  this  sin.  When  he  saw 
the  destruction  of  Ziklag  and  the  temper  of  his  men,  the 
text  says  that  David  ''greatly  encouraged  his  heart  in  God 


m  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

and  called  for  the  high  priest  and  the  Ephod."  What  a 
pity  he  hadn't  called  for  him  sooner!  But  God  is  quick 
to  answer  readily,  and  forgive  His  erring  children,  and  to 
put  away  their  sin,  and  the  answer  comes  through  the 
Ephod  to  David's  questions:  "Shall  I  pursue  after  this 
troop?  Shall  I  overtake  them?"  and  God's  answer  comes 
as  quick  as  lightning,  'Tursue  them,  for  you  shall  over- 
take them  and  you  shall  recover  all."  That  was  a  very  fine 
reply  for  a  sinner  to  get  when  his  trouble  arose  from  his 
own  sin,  and  so  he  does  pursue  them  with  his  600  men,  and 
David  in  pursuit  of  a  foe  was  like  the  Texas  rangers.  If 
a  man's  horse  gave  out  they  left  it.  If  a  man  himself  gave 
out  they  left  him.  They  just  kept  pursuing  until  they  found 
and  struck  the  enemy.    That  was  the  way  with  David. 

A  third  of  his  force,  200  of  his  brave  men,  when  they 
got  to  a  certain  stream  of  water,  could  not  go  any  further. 
He  had  to  leave  them  and  go  with  just  400  men.  Out  ip 
the  desert  he  finds  a  slave  of  one  of  the  Amalekites,  an 
Egyptian,  starving  to  death.  He  had  had  nothing  to  eat 
for  three  days.  David  fed  him,  and  asked  him  if  he  would 
guide  them  to  the  camp  of  the  Amalekites.  He  said  he 
would  if  they  would  never  let  his  master  get  him  again, 
and  David  came  upon  them  while  they  were  feasting  and 
rejoicing  over  the  great  spoils.  He  killed  all  of  them  ex- 
cept about  400  young  men  who  rode  on  camels.  They  got 
away.  Camels  are  hard  to  overtake  by  infantry.  They  are 
very  swift.  And  your  record  says  that  David  recovered 
every  man,  woman  and  child  and  every  stick  of  furniture, 
besides  all  the  rich  spoils  these  desert  pirates  had  been 
gathering  in  for  quite  a  while,  cattle  and  stock  of  every 
kind. 

David  made  the  following  judicious  uses  of  the  victory : 

I.     On  the  return,  when  they  got  to  where  those  200  were 

left  behind,  certain  tough  characters  in  his  army  did  not 

want  the  200  men  to  share  in  the  spoils.    They  could  have 


ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA  143 

their  wives  and  children,  but  nothing  else.  David  not  only 
refused  to  follow  that  plan,  but  established  a  rule  dating 
from  that  time,  that  whoever  stayed  behind  with  the  bag- 
gage must  share  equally  with  those  that  went  to  the  front. 
These  men  did  not  want  to  stay,  but  they  couldn't  go  any 
further. 

At  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto  Houston  had  to  sternly  detail 
a  certain  number  of  his  men  to  keep  the  camp,  and  they 
wept  because  they  were  not  allowed  to  go  into  the  battle. 
Those  men  that  were  detailed  to  stay  in  camp  ought  to  be 
counted  as  among  the  victors  of  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto, 
and  history  so  counts  them. 

2.  The  second  judicious  use  that  he  made  of  the  spoils 
captured  from  these  Amalekites  was  to  send  large  presents 
to  quite  a  number  of  the  southern  cities  of  Judah  that  had 
been  friendly  to  him  and  his  men.  He  was  always  a  gen- 
erous-hearted man.  That  made  a  good  deal  of  capital  for 
David.  Even  had  he  been  acting  simply  as  a  politician, 
that  was  the  wisest  thing  he  could  have  done.  But  he  simply 
followed  his  heart. 

There  were  great  accessions  to  David  at  Ziklag.  The 
text  tells  us,  I  Chron.  12: 1-7,  that  there  were  about  twenty- 
three  mighty  men,  some  of  whom  were  Benjamites,  who 
had  come  from  Saul's  tribe,  and  they  were  right-handed 
and  left-handed.  They  could  shoot  an  arrow  with  either 
hand.  They  could  use  either  hand  to  sling  a  stone,  and 
among  these  twenty-three  were  some  of  the  most  celebrated 
champions  of  single  combat  ever  known  in  the  world's  his- 
tory. One  of  them,  Jashobeam,  in  one  fight  killed  300  men 
with  one  spear. 

SAUL  AND  THE  WITCH  OF  ENDOR 

It  is  important  for  us  to  note  just  here  the  Mosaic  law 
against  necromancy,  or  an  appeal  to  the  dead  by  the  living 
through  a  medium,  i.e.,  a  wizard,  if  a  man,  or  a  witch,  if 


144  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

a  woman,  and  wherein  lies  the  sin  of  necromancy,  which 
relates  exclusively  to  trying  to  gather  information  from  the 
dead.  The  law  of  Moses,  in  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  is 
very  explicit  that  no  Israelite  should  ever  try  to  gather  in- 
formation from  the  dead  through  a  wizard  or  a  witch,  and 
the  reason  is  that  hidden  things  belong  to  God  and  revealed 
things  to  us  and  our  children.  The  only  lawful  way  to 
information  concerning  what  lies  beyond  the  grave  is  an 
appeal  to  Jehovah,  and  if  God  does  not  disclose  it,  let  it 
alone.  The  prophetic  teaching  on  this  subject  is  found  in 
the  famous  passage  in  Isaiah:  "Woe  to  them  that  seek 
to  wizards  and  witches  that  chirp  and  mutter.  Why  should 
the  living  seek  unto  the  dead  instead  of  unto  the  living 
God?" 

Early  in  his  reign  Saul  had  rigidly  enforced  the  Mosaic 
law  putting  the  wizards  and  witches  to  death,  or  driving 
them  out  of  the  country. 

There  are  several  theories  of  interpretation  concerning 
the  transaction  in  I  Sam.  28: 11-19,  but  I  will  discuss  only 
three  of  them.  Saul  himself  goes  to  the  witch  of  Endor 
and  asks  her  to  call  up  Samuel,  making  an  inquiry  of  the 
dead  through  a  medium,  wanting  information  that  God  had 
refused  to  give  him.     These  are  the  theories: 

I.  Some  hold  that  there  was  no  appearance  of  Samuel 
himself  nor  an  impersonation  of  him  by  an  evil  spirit ;  that 
there  was  nothing  supernatural,  but  only  a  trick  of  im- 
posture by  the  witch,  like  many  modern  tricks  by  mediums 
and  spirit  rappers,  and  that  the  historian  merely  records 
what  appeared  to  be  on  the  surface.  That  is  the  first  theory. 
That  is  the  theory  of  the  radical  critics,  who  oppose  every- 
thing supernatural,  and  you  know  without  my  telling  you 
what  my  opinion  is  of  that  theory.  There  are  indeed  many 
tricks  of  imposture  by  pretended  fortune  tellers,  and  some 
of  them  are  marvelous,  but  such  impostures  do  not  account 
for  all  the  facts. 


ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA  145 

2.  Others  hold  that  there  was  a  real  appearance  of 
Samuel,  but  the  witch  didn't  bring  him  up ;  she  was  as  much, 
if  not  more,  startled  than  Saul  when  he  came;  that  God 
himself  interfered,  permitting  Samuel  to  appear  to  the  dis- 
comfiture of  the  witch,  who  cried  out  when  she  saw  him, 
and  to  pronounce  final  judgment  on  Saul.  They  quote  in 
favor  of  this  theory  Ezek.  14:3,  7,  8:  "Son  of  man,  these 
men  have  taken  their  idols  into  their  heart,  and  put  the 
stumbling  block  of  their  iniquity  before  their  face:  should 
I  be  inquired  of  at  all  by  them?  .  .  .  For  every  one  of  the 
house  of  Israel,  or  of  the  strangers  that  sojourn  in  Israel, 
that  separateth  himself  from  me,  and  taketh  his  idols  into 
his  heart,  and  putteth  the  stumbling  block  of  his  iniquity  be- 
fore his  face,  and  cometh  to  the  prophet  to  inquire  for  him- 
self of  me ;  I,  Jehovah,  will  answer  him  by  myself ;  and  I 
will  set  my  face  against  that  man,  and  will  make  him  an 
astonishment,  for  a  sign  and  a  proverb,  and  I  will  cut  him  off 
from  the  midst  of  my  people."  They  interpret  this  passage 
to  mean  that  when  a  man  violated  God's  law,  as  Saul  and 
this  witch  did,  that  God  took  it  upon  himself  to  answer, 
and  answered  through  Samuel.    • 

That  theory  is  the  Jewish  view  throughout  the  ages.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Septuagint  rendering  of  I  Chron.  10:13, 
"Saul  asked  counsel  of  her  that  had  a  familiar  spirit,  and 
Samuel  made  answer  to  him."  It  further  appears  to  be  the 
Jewish  view  by  the  apocryphal  book  Ecclesiasticus  46:20, 
which  says,  "After  his  death  Samuel  prophesied  and  showed 
the  king  his  end,  and  lifted  up  his  voice  from  the  earth  in 
prophecy."  The  Jewish  view  further  appears  in  Josephus, 
who  thinks  that  Samuel  was  really  there,  but  that  God  sent 
him ;  not  that  the  witch  had  brought  him  up  or  could  do  it. 
This  view  was  adopted  by  many  early  Christian  writers; 
for  example,  Justin  Martyr,  Origen  and  Augustine,  all  great 
men,  and  this  view  is  held  more  and  more  by  modern  com- 
mentators, among  them,   for  instance,  Edersheim,  in  his 


146  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

*' History  of  Israel,"  and  Kirkpatrick  in  the  Cambridge 
Bible,  and  Blakie  in  the  Expositor's  Bible,  and  Taylor  in 
his  ''History  of  David  and  His  Times."  All  those  books 
I  have  recommended;  they  all  take  that  second  view. 

3.  Now  here  is  the  third  theory  of  interpretation.  First, 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  necromancy,  in  which,  through  me- 
diums possessed  of  evil  spirits,  which  spirits  do  impersonate 
the  dead  and  do  communicate  with  the  living.  This  theory 
holds  that  the  case  of  Saul  and  the  witch  of  Endor  is  in 
point — that  an  evil  spirit  (for  this  woman  is  said  to  have 
had  a  familiar  spirit ;  she  was  possessed  with  an  evil  spirit, 
and  the  business  of  these  evil  spirits  in  their  demoniacal 
possession  is  to  impersonate  dead  people;)  caused  the  sem- 
blance of  Samuel  to  appear  and  speak  through  his  mouth. 
This  theory  claims  that  the  scripture  in  Job  3:17,  towit: 
"When  the  good  man  dies  he  goes  where  the  wicked  cease 
from  troubling  and  the  weary  are  at  rest,"  could  be  vio- 
lated if  this  had  really  been  Samuel,  who  said,  ''Wherefore 
hast  thou  disquieted  me?"  And  whoever  this  man  was  that 
appeared  did  say  that. 

H  God  had  sent  him  he  could  not  very  well  have  used 
that  language.  God  had  a  right  to  do  as  He  pleased,  but 
Saul  had  no  right  to  try  to  call  back  a  dead  man  to  get 
information  from  him.  This  theory  also  claims  that  the 
prophecy  pronounced  by  that  semblance  of  Samuel  was  not 
true,  but  it  would  have  been  true  if  Samuel  had  said  it. 
That  prophecy  says,  ''Tomorrow  thou  and  thy  sons  shall 
be  with  me,"  but  Saul  didn't  die  until  three  days  later;  on 
the  third  day  the  battle  of  Gilboa  was  fought,  and  that 
Samuel,  neither  dead  nor  alive,  would  have  told  a  falsehood. 
Very  many  early  Christian  writers  adopt  this  theory,  among 
them  Tertullian  and  Jerome,  the  author  of  the  Vulgate  or 
Latin  version  of  the  Bible,  and  nearly  all  of  the  reformers, 
Luther,  Calvin  and  all  those  mighty  minds  that  wrought 
out  the  reformation.     They  took  the  position  that  the  evil 


ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA     Ul 

spirit  simulated  Samuel.  Those  who  hold  to  this  theory 
further  say  that  unless  this  is  an  exception,  nowhere  else 
in  the  Word  of  God  is  any  man  who  died  mentioned  as 
coming  back  with  a  message  to  the  living  except  the  Lord ; 
that  He  is  the  first  to  bring  Hfe  and  immortality  to  light 
through  the  gospel  after  He  had  abolished  death.  They  do 
not  believe  that  the  circumstances  in  this  case  warrant  an 
exception  to  the  rule  that  applies  to  the  whole  Bible,  and 
particularly  they  quote  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus.  The  rich  man  asks  that  Lazarus  might  go  back 
to  the  other  world  with  a  message  to  his  brethren,  and  it 
was  refused  on  the  ground  that  they  have  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  and  if  a  man  won't  hear  Moses  and  the  prophets 
neither  would  he  hear  though  one  rose  from  the  dead.  That 
makes  a  strong  case. 

Certainly  the  first  theory  is  not  true,  and  the  other  two 
theories  are  advocated  with  such  plausibility  and  force  that 
I  will  leave  you  to  take  whatever  side  you  please.  My  own 
opinion  is  that  Samuel  was  not  there,  but  on  a  matter  of 
this  kind  let  us  not  be, dogmatic.  Let  us  do  our  own  think- 
ing and  we  will  be  in  good  company  no  matter  which  of 
these  last  theories  we  adopt. 

A  great  many  years  ago,  when  spirit  rapping  was  sweep- 
ing over  the  country,  it  was  a  custom  among  Methodist 
preachers  to  tell  about  visitations  they  had  from  the  dead, 
and  warnings  that  they  had  received,  and  J.  R.  Graves 
fought  it.  He  said  that  it  was  against  the  written  law  of 
God,  the  law  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  our  Lord  and 
His  apostles,  and  that  we  didn't  need  any  revelations  from 
dead  people,  whereupon  a  Methodist  preacher  named  Wat- 
son challenged  him  to  debate  the  question  and  they  did 
debate  it.  Graves  stood  on  this  position:  There  isn't  a 
case  in  the  Bible  where  one  who  died  was  allowed  to  come 
back  with  a  message  to  the  living  but  Jesus  only,  and  He 
is  the  only  traveler  that  has  ever  returned  from  that  bourne 


148  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

to  throw  light  on  the  state  of  the  dead.  In  the  debate,  of 
course,  the  central  case  was  that  of  Saul,  the  witch  of  Endor 
and  Samuel.  If  Watson  couldn't  maintain  himself  on  that 
it  was  not  worth  while  to  go  to  any  other  case.  Watson 
quoted  the  appearance  of  Moses  and  Elijah  on  the  Mount 
of  Transfiguration.  Graves  said,  "Yes.  They  did  appear, 
but  they  had  no  message  for  living  people;  none  for  the 
apostles."  Then  he  finally  made  all  of  his  fight  on  this  case. 
I  read  the  debate  with  great  interest.  It  was  published,  but 
it  is  out  of  print. 

GILBOA 

The  description  of  the  battle  and  the  results  are  so  ex- 
plicit in  the  text  that  I  refer  the  reader  to  the  Bible  account 
of  this  great  battle.  But  we  need  to  reconcile  I  Sam.  31 : 4, 
5,  6,  and  I  Chron.  10 : 4,  5,  6.  Both  of  these  assert  that  Saul 
committed  suicide — fell  on  his  sword  and  died — and  that 
he  did  die,  with  II  Sam.  i  :6-io,  where  that  Amalekite  who 
brought  the  news  to  David  of  the  battle  says  that  he  found 
Saul  wounded,  and  that  Saul  asked  the  Amalekite  to  kill 
him,  and  that  the  Amalekite  did  kill  him.  The  Amalekite 
brought  also  to  David  a  bracelet  and  a  crown  that  belonged 
to  Saul.  You  are  asked  to  reconcile  these  two  statements. 
Did  Saul  commit  suicide?  We  know  he  tried  to  do  it,  but 
did  he  actually  commit  suicide,  or  did  that  Amalekite,  after 
Saul  fell  on  his  sword,  find  him  still  alive  and  kill  him? 
My  answer  is  that  the  Amalekite  lied.  The  record  clearly 
says  that  Saul  did  kill  himself,  and  his  armor-bearer  saw 
that  he  was  dead,  and  every  reference  in  the  scriptures  is 
to  the  death  by  his  own  hand  except  this  one.  This  Amale- 
kite, knowing  that  Saul  and  David  were  in  a  measure  rivals, 
supposed  that  he  might  ingratiate  himself  with  David  if  he 
could  bring  evidence  that  he  had  killed  Saul. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  this  Amalekite  was  there  and 
found  Saul's  body,  and  no  doubt  he  stripped  that  dead 


ZIKLAG,  ENDOR  AND  GILBOA  149 

body  of  the  bracelet  and  the  crown,  but  his  story  was  like 
the  story  of  Joe  in  the  "Wild  Western  Scenes."  An  Indian 
had  been  killed,  stabbed  through  the  heart,  and  the  heart 
blood  gushing  all  over  the  man  who  slew  him.  The  fight 
was  so  hot  that  Joe,  being  a  coward,  stayed  there  fighting 
the  dead  Indian,  and  so  they  found  him  there  stabbing  and 
saying  that  the  man  that  had  first  stabbed  him  through 
thought  he  had  killed  him,  but  that  he  was  not  dead  and 
had  got  up  and  attacked  him,  and  he  had  been  having  a 
desperate  fight  with  the  Indian. 

The  news  of  this  battle  sadly  affected  Jonathan's  son. 
Everybody  that  heard  of  the  battle  started  to  flee  across 
the  Jordan,  and  the  nurse  picked  up  Jonathan's  child  and 
in  running  dropped  him  and  he  fell,  and  became  a  cripple 
for  life.  We  will  have  some  very  interesting  things  about 
this  crippled  child  after  a  while. 

The  gratitude  and  heroism  of  the  men  of  Jabesh-Gilead 
is  worthy  of  note. 

The  Philistines  had  cut  off  Saul's  head  and  sent  it  back 
to  the  house  of  their  god,  and  took  his  armor  and  hung  up 
his  body  and  the  body  of  his  son  Jonathan  and  the  bodies 
of  the  two  brothers  of  Jonathan  on  the  wall  of  Beth-shan, 
and  when  the  men  of  Jabesh-gilead  (who  had  been  deliv- 
ered by  Saul  as  the  first  act  of  his  reign,  and  who  always 
remembered  him  with  gratitude)  heard  that  Saul  was 
killed,  they  sent  out  that  night  their  bravest  men  and  took 
those  bodies  down,  carried  them  over  the  Jordan,  burned 
them  enough  to  escape  recognition,  and  buried  their  bones 
under  a  tree.  A  long  time  afterwards  David  had  the  bones 
brought  and  buried  in  the  proper  place.  I  always  think 
kindly  of  those  men  of  Jabesh-gilead. 

David's  lament  over  Saul  and  Jonathan  is  found  in  II 
Sam.  I.  That  lamentation,  expressed  in  the  text,  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  elegaic  poems  in  the  Hterature  of 
the  world.    It  is  found  on  page  lo  of  the  text-book.    It  is 


160  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

not  a  religious  song.  It  is  a  funeral  song,  an  elegy,  after- 
wards called  "The  Bow,"  and  David  had  *'the  song  of  the 
bow"  taught  to  Israel,  referring  to  Jonathan's  bow.  I  give 
just  a  little  of  it: 

"Ye  daughters  of  Israel,  weep  over  Saul, 
Who  clothed  you  in  scarlet  delicately, 
Who  put  ornaments  of  gold  upon  your  apparel. 
How  are  the  mighty  fallen  in  the  midst  of  the  battle !" 

Now  the  tribute  to  Jonathan : 

"Jonathan  is  slain  upon  thy  high  places. 
I  am  distressed  for  thee,  my  brother  Jonathan : 
Very  pleasant  hast  thou  been  unto  me. 
Thy  love  to  me  was  wonderful, 
Passing  the  love  of  women." 

Every  admirer  of  good  poetry  bears  tribute  to  this  ex- 
quisite gem,  and  it  has  this  excellency :  It  forgets  the  faults 
and  extols  the  virtues  of  the  dead.  Saul  had  done  many 
mighty  things.  That  part  of  Gray's  Elegy,  "No  further 
seek  his  merits  to  disclose,"  compares  favorably  with  this. 
It  is  the  only  elegy  equal  to  David's. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Analyze  David's  sin  of  despair,  and  in  order,  the  train  of  sins 
and  embarrassments  that  follow. 

2.  What  great  modern  sermon  was  preached  on  the  despair  of 
David,  taking  this  line  for  a  text:  "I  shall  one  day  perish  by  the 
hand  of  Saul?" 

3.  How  was  this  sin  of  David  punished? 

4.  How  does  he  recover  himself  from  this  sin? 

5.  What  judicious  uses  of  the  victory  did  he  make? 

6.  What  great  accessions  to  David  at  Ziklag? 

7.  What  the  Mosaic  law  against  necromancy,  or  an  appeal  to  the 
dead  by  the  living  through  a  medium,  i.  e.,  a  wizard,  if  a  man,  or  a 
witch,  if  a  woman,  and  wherein  lies  the  sin  of  necromancy? 

8.  What  the  prophetic  teaching  on  this  subject? 

9.  What  had  Saul  done  to  enforce  the  Mosaic  law? 

10.  What  theories  of  interpretation  concerning  the  transaction  in 
I  Sam.  28:  11-19? 

11.  Describe  the  battle  of  Gilboa  and  the  results. 

12.  Reconcile  I  Sam.  31 :  4.  5, 6  and  I  Chron.  10 :  4,  5,  and  6. 

13.  How  did  the  news  of  the  battle  affect  Jonathan's  son? 

14.  Describe  the  gratitude  and  heroism  of  the  men  of  Jabesh- 
gilead. 

15.  How  did  David  lament  over  Saul  and  Jonathan,  II  Sam.  i  ? 


XV 

HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION  TO  II  SAMUEL 
AND  I  CHRONICLES 

THE  Biblical  sources  of  material  for  a  history  of  the 
reign  of  David  is  found  in  II  Samuel  and  I  Chroni- 
cles.   Apart  from  these  two  books,  the  Biblical  ma- 
terial for  an  interpretation  of  this  history  is:     (i)    The 
Psalter;    (2)    The  utterances  of  the  prophets;    (3)    New 
Testament  comment. 

The  two  BibHcal  histories  of  David's  reign  are  independ- 
ent histories,  composed  by  different  authors,  far  separated 
in  time  from  each  other,  and  with  quite  distinct  purposes. 
II  Samuel  was  written  by  contemporaneous  prophets,  very 
often  witnesses  and  participators  in  the  events  related. 
Their  purpose  is  to  give  a  simple,  connected  history  of  so 
many  of  the  events  in  David's  hfe  as  will  reveal  the  man, 
and  so  much  of  the  monarchy  as  bears  upon  the  idea  of  a 
theocratic  monarchy  in  its  relation  to  the  kingdom  of  God. 
All  material  irrelevant  to  that  purpose  is  omitted.  Inspira- 
tion guides  them  in  the  selection  of  the  matter  recorded 
and  in  the  rejection  of  the  matter  omitted,  but  I  Chronicles 
was  written  by  Ezra  after  the  downfall  of  the  monarchy 
and  with  a  view  to  establish,  on  a  right  foundation,  the 
hierarchy  which  succeeds  the  monarchy,  and  to  comfort  the 
Jews  of  the  Restoration  who  have  no  earthly  king  or  earthly 
kingdom  by  turning  their  minds  toward  the  coming  of  a 
visible  but  spiritual  kingdom  to  be  set  up  by  David's  great 
Descendant,  the  Lord  from  heaven.  While  it  is  as  real  a 
history  as  II  Samuel,  its  purpose  is  more  distinctly  didactic 
and  philosophical. 

151 


152  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

The  author  of  Chronicles,  with  the  book  of  Samuel  be- 
fore him,  copies  many  passages  word  for  word,  or,  where 
it  suits  his  purpose  better,  follows  the  substance  with  a 
slight  variation  in  detail.  In  many  other  instances,  and  at 
a  great  length,  he  uses  material  from  original  prophetic 
sources  preserved  nowhere  else  in  the  Bible,  citing  the 
names  of  the  prophetic  authors.  This  great  bulk  of  addi- 
tional matter  in  Chronicles,  while  old  in  its  origin,  is  new 
in  its  use,  and  is  essential  to  the  purpose  of  the  author  in 
preparing  the  people  for  the  change  from  monarchy  to 
hierarchy.  On  this  account  also  he  omits  matters  quite 
important  to  the  purpose  of  the  historian  of  the  book  of 
Samuel,  but  irrelevant  to  his  own ;  for  example,  the  history 
of  David's  reign  over  Judah  alone ;  the  war  with  the  house 
of  Saul ;  David's  kindness  to  Mephibosheth,  Jonathan's  son ; 
David's  adultery  and  its  punishment;  the  history  of  Ab- 
salom's rebelHon;  the  execution  of  Saul's  sons;  David's 
thanksgiving  and  last  words.  None  of  these  is  in  Chron- 
icles. These  omissions,  when  considered  with  the  omissions 
of  so  many  thrilling  events  in  David's  early  life  and  his 
outlaw  life,  already  noticed,  show  plainly  that  the  Samuel- 
book  is  more  the  life  of  the  man,  while  Chronicles  is  more 
the  history  of  the  monarchy.  So,  later.  Chronicles  will  omit 
the  entire  history  of  the  defection  under  Jeroboam  and  the 
history  of  the  several  dynasties  of  the  seceding  ten  tribes, 
and  confine  itself  to  the  line  of  David  and  the  unity  of  the 
nation  and  monarchy  in  Judah,  carefully  reciting  the  return 
to  Judah  of  representatives  of  all  the  seceding  ten  tribes, 
showing  clearly  that  while  the  bulk  of  revolting  tribes  were 
lost  in  the  fall  of  the  Northern  kingdom  and  so  go  out  of 
history,  yet  these  tribes  were  preserved  and  perpetuated  in 
the  return  of  their  remnants  to  Judah.  Therefore  Chron- 
icles gives  not  a  thought  to  the  useless  modern  question, 
"What  became  of  the  lost  ten  tribes?" 

Neither  it  nor  any  subsequent  Bible  book  knows  anything 


II  SAMUEL  AND  I  CHRONICLES  153 

of  lost  tribes.  The  tribes  were  not  lost  any  more  than  they 
were  lost  in  the  thirty-eight  years  of  the  wilderness  wan- 
derings where  a  generation  perished,  but  the  tribes  survived. 
They  count  all  the  tribes  preserved  in  the  remnants  that 
came  back  to  Judah. 

Chronicles  pays  no  attention  to  their  history  while  apart, 
but  is  very  careful  to  report  their  return.  Precisely  for  the 
same  reasons  Chronicles  barely  touches  Saul's  history,  or 
the  history  of  his  children  after  him,  seeing  that  the  mon- 
archy is  not  perpetuated  in  Saul's  line,  but  is  very  careful 
to  catalogue  the  warriors  coming  from  Saul's  kingdom  to 
David  at  Adullam  and  Ziklag,  and  the  mighty  hosts  from 
all  the  tribes  who  came  to  Hebron  to  make  him  king  over 
all  Israel,  and  gives  such  details  of  the  plague  threatening 
the  national  life,  and  hence  as  bearing  on  the  hierarchy 
after  the  downfall  of  the  monarchy. 

Chronicles  records  the  elaborate  details  not  elsewhere 
found  of  the  arrangements  on  the  occasion  of  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Ark  to  Jerusalem.  It  gives  two  whole  chapters 
to  that  and  part  of  another.  It  gives  an  entire  chapter  to 
David's  preparation  of  the  temple  material.  It  gives  several 
entire  chapters  to  the  elaborate  organization  of  the  priests 
and  the  Levites,  the  army  and  the  civil  service,  and  to  the 
national  assembly  at  Solomon's  accession.  A  restatement 
of  all  of  these  things  of  the  past  was  intensely  helpful 
toward  the  establishment  and  perpetuity  of  the  hierarchy 
after  the  monarchy  is  gone. 

The  chronology  in  II  Samuel  and  I  Chronicles  is  simply 
the  chronology  of  the  reign  of  David.  The  period  of  time 
covered  by  these  two  books  touching  David  is  forty  years. 
After  profound  study,  the  harmonist,  as  shown  in  the  text- 
book, gives  his  conception  of  the  time  order  of  the  events. 
It  is  a  big  problem,  but  I  think  you  may  more  safely  rely, 
at  least  substantially,  on  the  order  in  the  Cambridge  Bible, 
which  I  cite,  using  my  own  words: 


154j  the  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

1.  The  reign  of  David  at  Hebron,  seven  and  a  half 
years,  i.  e.,  from  b.  c.  1055  to  1048. 

2.  The  date  of  Absalom's  birth  somewhere  between  b.  c. 
1052  and  1050. 

3.  The  reign  of  Ish-bosheth,  and  the  civil  war  with  the 
house  of  Saul,  b.  c.  1050-1048. 

4.  The  reign  of  David  at  Jerusalem  after  that  period 
extends  from  b.  c.  1048  to  1015. 

5.  The  period  of  the  foreign  wars  comes  next,  about  10 
years,  *.  e.,  from  b.  c.  1045  to  1035. 

6.  The  date  of  David's  sin  with  Bath-sheba,  1035. 

7.  The  outrage  of  Amnon  the  very  next  year,  1034. 

8    Absalom's  rebellion,  which  grows  out  of  it,  b.  c.  1023. 

9.  The  period  of  tranquillity  and  national  growth  from 
b.  c.  1023  to  1015. 

10.  The  date  of  the  great  plague  in  1018. 

11.  David's  death,  1015. 

I  have  changed  the  Cambridge  order  somewhat,  but  my 
study  on  it  has  been  profound,  both  in  original  investigation 
and  in  the  examination  of  a  great  many  books.  That  is 
about  the  time-order  of  the  events  contained  in  these  two 
books.  I  could  give  my  argument  for  it,  but  that  would 
take  up  a  great  deal  of  space. 

This  Old  Testament  history,  as  well  as  all  other  Old 
Testament  history,  differs  from  secular  history  in  three 
particulars:  (i)  In  the  subject  matter,  in  that  it  is  a 
history  of  the  special  training  and  discipHne  of  God's 
chosen  people;  (2)  In  its  giving  events  as  God  sees  them 
and  not  as  man  sees  them;  (3)  In  the  selection  of  the 
material  it  uses,  putting  in  nothing  that  does  not  bear  upon 
the  whole  plan  of  the  Old  Testament  as  the  preparation  for 
the  New. 

A  writer  of  United  States  history  would  not  think  of 
leaving  out  the  details  of  seven  or  eight  great  wars,  but 
this  sacred  historian  leaves  out  any  number  of  them,  since 


II  SAMUEL  AND  I  CHRONICLES  165 

these  details  have  no  relation  to  the  great  purpose  of  the 
historian.  I  am  quite  sure  that  one  should  not  study  this 
history  as  he  studies  secular  history. 

It  must  he  studied  as  the  record  of  the  divine  preparation 
for  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  whole  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  a  preparation  for  the  New.  The  Old 
Testament  not  only  contains  prophecies,  but  the  whole  his- 
tory itself  is  a  prophecy. 

The  elements  of  this  preparation  are:  (i)  The  discipline 
and  training  of  the  chosen  nation  that  it  might  be  the  home 
of  the  Son  of  God  when  He  came;  (2)  The  development 
of  the  ideas  involving  the  offices  of  the  Messiah — what  the 
Messiah  was  to  be  when  He  came — Sacrifice,  Prophet, 
Priest,  King,  and  Judge.  The  main  contribution  of  H 
Samuel  and  I  Chronicles  is  toward  the  king  idea.  In  Gen- 
esis, Exodus  and  Leviticus  the  sacrifices  point  to  the  mission 
of  the  Son  of  God  to  be  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  also  to  His 
being  the  priest  through  whom  atonement  is  efifected.  I 
Samuel  contributes  the  additional  idea  of  the  prophet. 
These  books  will  put  before  us  the  king,  and  when  the 
Messiah  comes  He  is  to  come  as  King — the  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords,  and  when  we  study  them  we  study  them 
in  view  of  their  Messianic  forecast.  These  two  books  con- 
tribute to  the  Messianic  idea  also.  In  David  we  certainly 
find  a  prophet.  He  is  one  of  the  greatest  prophets  of  the 
Old  Testament.  In  David  we  certainly  find  a  king,  exer- 
cising priestly  functions,  though  not  belonging  to  the  tribe 
of  Levi.  In  other  words,  he  is  a  king  and  priest.  In  David 
we  find  the  high  ideal  of  the  king — prophet,  priest  and  king, 
and  these  books  bring  that  out  clearly. 

So  far  in  the  history  of  David  we  have  learned  simply 
his  preparation  to  be  king.  We  have  seen  that  preparation : 
(i)  In  his  shepherd  Hfe.  (2)  In  his  long  novitiate  of  suf- 
fering in  his  outlaw  life.  The  man  has  been  trained  physi- 
cally, mentally,  morally.    How  often  have  I  said  to  young 


156  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

preachers,  *'Only  prepared  men  accomplish  great  things, 
and  a  preacher  can  make  no  more  hurtful  mistake  than  to 
suppose  that  it  is  a  waste  of  time  and  money  to  prepare  to 
be  efficient  when  he  does  work."  Having  learned  in  I  Sam- 
uel David's  preparation  to  be  king,  we  are  to  learn  in  these 
two  books  what  he  did  as  king.  This  is  the  reign  now  for 
which  all  the  other  was  a  preparation. 

The  difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  if  he  reigns  after  God's 
heart  and  not  Saul's,  are  many  and  grave : 

1.  He  must  secure  the  unity  of  the  nation.  In  Judges 
we  see  twelve  tribes,  each  one  going  ofif  at  a  tangent,  as 
that  expression  so  often  repeated  in  the  book  says,  "In 
those  days  there  was  no  king  in  Israel,  and  each  man  did 
what  seemed  to  him  to  be  right.''  Sometimes  Judah  is  be- 
fore us,  sometimes  Naphtali,  sometimes  Gad,  sometimes 
Manasseh;  it  is  not  a  nation,  but  twelve  loosely- jointed 
tribes.  The  first  thing  that  David  has  to  do  is  to  secure 
the  unity  of  the  nation.  It  takes  him  seven  and  a  half 
years  to  do  it  after  he  is  crowned  at  Hebron.  So  that  is 
his  first  achievement,  and  that  will  be  my  next  discussion — 
the  seven  and  a  half  years  that  David  reigned  at  Hebron 
while  the  house  of  Saul  held  the  greater  part  of  the  terri- 
tory. 

2.  The  second  difficulty  was  to  provide  a  central  place 
of  worship  that  would  not  cause  jealousies,  and  such  serv- 
ices at  that  place  of  worship  as  would  help  perpetuate  the 
unity  of  the  nation.  Never  before  had  these  been  fully 
attained. 

I  stop  here  long  enough  to  make  a  remark  that  I  may 
repeat  later,  that  when  the  thirteen  original  colonies  seceded 
from  England  and  under  a  loose  sort  of  compact  fought 
the  Revolutionary  War,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  began 
to  take  steps  for  a  more  permanent  union,  one  of  the  great- 
est problems  was,  ''Where  are  we  to  put  the  capital?"  and 
it  is  a  very  interesting  part  of  American  history  to  read 


II  SAMUEL  AND  I  CHRONICLES  157 

the  debates  on  the  location  of  the  capital.  If  the  discussion 
had  been  deferred  till  our  time  the  capital  would  never 
have  been  put  at  Washington,  but  it  was  the  right  place 
then.  It  had  been  partly  in  New  York,  partly  in  Phila- 
delphia, and  sometimes  *'on  wheels,"  and  the  biggest  kind 
of  a  compromise  was  effected  by  its  permanent  location, 
and  in  order  that  no  State  might  claim  the  capital,  Virginia 
and  Maryland  were  to  donate  for  it  a  certain  district  to  be 
national  property. 

Here  we  see  David  do  something  much  like  that.  He 
would  not  have  his  capital  at  Hebron,  as  that  would  look 
too  much  like  a  Judah-capital,  nor  Gibeah,  where  Saul  had 
reigned.  He  takes  an  entirely  new  place,  to  be  owned  by 
all  the  nation — half  in  Judah  and  half  in  Benjamin. 

3.  The  third  thing  that  he  has  to  do  is  to  destroy,  or 
at  least  break  the  backbone  of  those  enemies  who  have  been 
fighting  the  children  of  Israel  ever  since  their  settlement 
in  the  country.  You  will  see  David  do  this.  You  will  see 
him  crush  under  his  feet,  and  under  the  iron  hand  of  his 
power,  every  national  enemy.  There  will  be  no  more  a 
battle  of  Gilboa.  There  will  be  no  more  "grindstone"  pe- 
riods, and  for  the  first  time  you  will  see  the  boundaries 
filled  out  just  as  God  stated  them  originally  in  His  promises. 
They  will  reach  from  the  River  of  Egypt  to  the  Euphrates. 

4.  He  must  organize  what  is  called  a  "civil  service," 
that  is,  an  administrative  body.  He  counts  it  important  to 
provide  a  financial  system  adequate  to  supply  national  needs 
and  representation  at  foreign  courts — all  things  of  that 
kind.  Then,  he  must  organize  an  army,  so  as  not  to  depend 
upon  indiscriminate  levies  such  as  we  have  seen  Deborah, 
Barak,  Gideon,  Jephtha  and  Saul  doing,  blowing  a  trumpet 
and  calling  a  big  militia  crowd  out  that  will  fight  if  you  let 
them  fight  quick,  but  they  have  to  go  home  next  week.  If 
they  win  a  fight  they  must  go  home  to  divide  the  spoils — 
must  take  something  to  the  wife  and  children. 


168  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

5.  He  had  to  organize  the  kingdom — organize  its  priests 
and  Levites  with  a  view  to  such  services  at  the  central  place 
of  worship  as  would  make  that  central  place  of  unity  the 
joy  of  the  whole  earth;  make  it  the  mightiest  power  in 
holding  the  nation  together.  He  is  for  the  first  time  to 
organize  the  choir,  so  famous  in  the  temple  service. 

6.  The  sixth  point,  and  no  less  important  than  the  others, 
he  must  prepare  for  a  transfer  of  the  succession  without 
trouble.  There  is  where  trouble  comes  to  nations,  when 
one  ruler  goes  out  and  another  comes  in;  when  one  king 
dies,  who  shall  be  his  successor.  We  will  see  how  wisely 
David  safeguarded  the  nation  at  all  points  so  far  as  he 
could  do  it,  and  he  certainly  did  provide  for  the  succession 
of  his  son  Solomon. 

As  we  have  only  one  other  question  to  consider  I  will 
restate  these  six  points:  (i)  To  secure  the  unity  of  the 
nation.  (2)  Central  place  of  worship.  (3)  Services  of  a 
character  to  maintain  the  unity.  (4)  Destruction  of  oppos- 
ing enemies.  (5)  Organization.  (6)  Provision  for  suc- 
cession. You  will  have  learned  great  things  from  these  two 
books  when  you  get  these  fixed  in  your  mind. 

David  was  a  type  of  Christ: 

1.  He  is  called  the  "Lord's  anointed,"  and  "Anointed" 
is  what  the  word  "Christ"  means.  "Christ"  is  English; 
Christos  is  Greek ;  "Messiah"  is  Hebrew ;  they  all  mean  the 
same  thing. 

2.  He  was  a  type  of  Christ  in  uniting  in  one  person  the 
offices  of  prophet,  priest  and  king. 

3.  He  was  a  type  of  Christ  in  the  trials  and  sufferings 
of  the  preparation  for  his  reign.  Look  at  that  suffering  life ; 
look  at  the  awful  persecutions,  and  then  read  in  the  New 
Testament  about  the  Savior's  sufferings  before  He  got  to 
the  point  where  it  could  be  said  of  Him:  "Lift  up  your 
heads,  O  ye  gates;  and  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors; 


II  SAMUEL  AND  I  CHRONICLES  159 

and  let  the   King  of   Glory  come  in."     What  an  awful 
preparation  Christ  had  to  pass  through! 

4.  He  was  a  type  of  Christ  in  the  expressions  in  the 
Psalms  of  the  agony  of  the  Messianic  sufferings.  When 
we  come  to  the  Psalter  we  will  understand  better  the  typical 
character  of  David. 

5.  He  was  a  type  of  Christ  in  that  he  was  God's  rep- 
resentative to  man,  and  man's  representative  to  God. 

6.  And  here  is  a  strange  one — He  was  a  type  of  Christ 
in  being  the  head  or  ruler  of  the  heathen,  as  well  as  the 
beloved  monarch  of  his  own  people.  That  thought  is  very 
clearly  brought  out  in  our  history. 

7.  He  marked  the  place  of  Christ's  birth  by  being  born 
there  himself. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  Biblical  sources  of  material  for  a  history  of  the  reign 
of  David? 

2.  Apart  from  these  two  books,  what  Biblical  material  have  we  for 
an  interpretation  of  this  history? 

3.  Restate  the  relations  between  the  two  Biblical  histories  of 
David's  reign. 

4.  What  of  the  chronology  in  II  Samuel  and  I  Chronicles? 

5.  What  the  probable  time-order  of  the  events  in  these  books? 

6.  How  does  this  Old  Testament  history,  as  well  as  all  other  Old 
Testament  history,  differ  from  secular  history? 

7.  How  then  must  this  history  be  studied? 

8.  What  the  elements  of  this  preparation? 

9.  How  much  do  II  Samuel  and  I  Chronicles  contribute  toward 
this  preparation? 

10.  How  much  do  these  two  books  contribute  to  the  Messianic 
idea? 

11.  So  far  in  the  history  of  David,  what  have  we  learned? 

12.  What  are  we  to  learn  in  these  two  books? 

13.  What  the  difficulties  to  be  surmounted,  if  he  reigns  after  God's 
heart  and  not  Saul's? 

14.  How  was  David  a  type  of  Christ? 


XVI 


DAVID,  KING  OF  JUDAH  AT  HEBRON,  AND  THE 
WAR  WITH  THE  HOUSE  OF  SAUL 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  103-108 

THE  state  of  the  nation  just  after  the  battle  of  Gilboa 
was  this : 

I.  The  Phihstines  held  all  central  Palestine,  the 
remnants  of  Saul's  family  and  army,  together  with  the 
people  of  that  section,  having  fled  across  the  Jordan,  leav- 
ing all  their  possessions  to  the  enemy. 

2.  David  had  gained  a  sweeping  victory  in  the  South 
country  over  the  Amalekites  and  their  allies,  and  had  dis- 
tributed the  spoils  among  the  near-by  cities  of  Judah,  but 
as  Ziklag  was  destroyed  he  had  no  home. 

In  these  conditions  David  displayed  both  piety  and  wis- 
dom. He  submitted  the  whole  matter  of  his  duty  to  Jeho- 
vah's direction,  and  accordingly  went  with  all  his  family 
and  forces  and  possessions  and  settled  at  Hebron,  there  to 
await  further  indications  of  the  divine  will  as  they  might 
be  expressed  to  him  by  communication  through  prophet, 
priest  or  providential  leadings.  He  knew  on  many  assur- 
ances that  he  was  anointed  to  be  king  over  all  Israel,  but 
would  not  complicate  a  distressful  situation  by  hasty  asser- 
tion of  his  claim.  He  well  knew  that  the  charter  of  the 
kingdom  required  the  people's  voluntary  ratification  of  the 
divine  choice,  and  took  no  steps  to  coerce  their  acquiescence. 

Hebron  was  specially  valuable  as  his  home  and  head- 
quarters pending  the  ratification  by  the  people.  It  was  the 
sacred  city  of  Judah,  hallowed  by  many  historic  memories 

160 


DAVID,  KING  OF  JUDAH  161 

from  Abraham's  day  to  his  own  time.  These  memories 
clustered  around  him  as  a  shelter  and  comfort,  and  as  a 
reminder  of  all  the  precious  promises  given  to  the  fathers. 
Hebron  was  their  home  when  living  and  burial  place  when 
dead.  The  aegis  of  a  long  line  of  illustrious  sires  was  over 
him  there  as  the  heir  of  all  legacies.  It  was  also  the  most 
notable  of  the  six  cities  of  refuge.  Whoever  assaulted  him, 
resting  there  by  divine  direction,  must  fight  all  the  sacred 
memories  of  the  past  and  all  the  glorious  promises  of  the 
future.  Jehovah,  prophet,  priest  and  Levite  were  with  him 
there.  Moreover,  this  old  city — one  of  the  oldest  in  the 
world — was  defensible  against  attack,  and  strategical  for 
either  observation  or  aggression. 

The  first  expression  of  popular  approval  was  when  all 
Judah  gathered  there  and  made  him  king  of  the  royal  tribe 
concerning  which  a  dying  ancestor  had  prophesied:  'The 
sceptre  shall  not  depart  from  Judah,  nor  a  lawgiver  from 
between  his  feet,  till  Shiloh  come;  and  unto  Him  shall  be 
the  obedience  of  the  nations."  This  act  alone  by  this  one 
tribe  was  worth  more  to  David  than  recognition  by  all  the 
other  tribes. 

The  sending  of  an  embassy  by  David  to  the  men  of 
Jabesh-gilead,  carrying  his  benediction  for  their  loyalty  to 
Saul  in  rescuing  and  burying  with  due  honor  his  body  and 
the  bodies  of  his  sons  gibbetted  in  public  shame  on  the  walls 
of  Bethshan,  together  with  his  promise  to  requite  what  they 
had  done,  bears  every  stamp  of  tender  sincerity  and  not  one 
mark  of  a  mere  politician.  What  he  did  is  in  entire  accord 
with  all  his  past  and  future  acts  toward  the  house  of  Saul. 
He  himself,  under  the  greatest  provocation,  had  never  struck 
back  at  Saul,  twice  sparing  his  life,  never  conspiring  against 
him,  not  only  in  every  way  honoring  him  as  God's  anointed, 
but  instantly  inflicting  the  death  penalty  on  every  man  who 
sought  to  gain  his  favor  by  indignity  offered  to  Saul  or  any 
of  his  family. 


16a  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Considering  this  past  and  future  conduct  toward  the 
house  of  Saul,  the  evident  tenderness  of  his  elegy  over  Saul 
and  Jonathan,  we  may  not  construe  as  the  adroit  stroke  of  a 
politician  the  last  clause  of  his  message,  towit :  *'Now,  there- 
fore, let  your  hands  be  strong,  and  be  ye  valiant ;  for  Saul 
your  lord  is  dead,  and  also  the  house  of  Judah  have  anointed 
me  king  over  them."  This  is  an  exceedingly  modest  intima- 
tion that  the  way  is  now  open  for  them  without  any  disloy- 
alty to  the  fallen  house,  to  turn  their  allegiance  to  God's 
choice  of  Saul's  successor.  But  this  generous  proposition 
of  David  was  defeated,  and  a  long  and  bloody  civil  war 
was  brought  on  by  the  ambition  of  one  man,  Abner,  the 
uncle  of  Saul,  who,  for  mere  selfish  ends  set  up  Ish-bosheth, 
a  son  of  Saul,  as  king.  Here  we  need  to  explain  the  paren- 
thetical clause  of  H  Sam.  2:10  in  connection  with  verse  I 
of  chapter  3.  This  parenthetical  clause  reads :  "Ish-bosheth, 
Saul's  son,  was  forty  years  old  when  he  began  to  reign  over 
Israel,  and  he  reigned  two  years."  The  other  verse  reads : 
"Now  there  was  long  war  between  the  house  of  Saul  and 
the  house  of  David." 

Attention  has  been  called  more  than  once  to  the  uncer- 
tainty in  Old  Testament  text,  in  numbers,  because  its  nu- 
merals are  expressed  in  letters,  and  that  mistakes  of  tran- 
scription easily  occur.  Now  if  the  two  years  in  this  clause 
expresses  the  true  text,  and  not  seven  years  and  a  half, 
then  the  meaning  must  be  this — that  Abner  set  up  Ish-bosheth 
just  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  battle  of  Gilboa,  but  it 
took  him  more  than  five  years  to  bring  all  of  the  tribes 
except  Judah  into  acceptance  of  Ish-bosheth  as  king,  and 
two  years  describes  the  last  two  of  the  seven  and  a  half. 
If  that  be  the  meaning,  then  the  history  does  not  give  the 
details  of  Abner's  five  and  a  half  years'  struggle  to  bring 
about  Ish-bosheth's  rule  over  all  Israel  but  Judah,  and  these 
details  must  have  shown,  if  we  had  any,  that  he  had  to 
drive  out  the  Philistines  that  held  the  territory,  and  hence 


DAVID,  KING  OF  JUDAH  163 

it  was  only  in  the  latter  part  of  Ish-bosheth's  reign,  count- 
ing from  the  time  he  was  set  up,  to  the  approach  to 
the  west  side  of  the  Jordan  which  is  described  in  this 
chapter. 

It  is  evident  from  all  the  context  that  Abner  knew  that 
David  was  God's  choice,  for  he  says  so  later  on  and  makes 
a  point  on  it.  It  is  also  evident  that  he  regards  Ish-bosheth 
as  a  mere  figurehead  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  own  ulti- 
mate assumption  of  the  sovereignty.  His  taking  to  himself 
of  Saul's  harem,  against  which  Ish-bosheth  protested,  did 
mean  just  what  Ish-bosheth  said  it  meant — that  it  was  equal 
to  claiming  the  kingdom  for  himself.  As  soon,  therefore, 
as  he  finds  out  that  his  motive  is  thoroughly  understood, 
then  as  an  evidence  that  good  motives  have  not  actuated 
him,  he  announces  to  Ish-bosheth  that  he  is  going  to  carry 
all  the  people  back  to  David,  God's  choice. 

We  recall  from  English  history  that  the  Duke  of  Warwick 
is  called  "The  King  Maker;"  that  he  made  Edward  IV  king, 
and  when  Edward  IV  insulted  him  then  he  took  sides  with 
Henry  VI  and  made  him  king.  Just  exactly  in  this  way 
Abner  acts  in  this  history.  His  motives,  therefore,  are 
merely  the  motives  of  a  man  who  knows  that  his  course  is 
opposed  to  God  and  to  the  best  interests  of  the  people,  but 
is  determined  to  further  his  own  selfish  ambitions. 

This  war  of  seven  and  a  half  years  was  thus  charac- 
terized: *'And  David  waxed  stronger  and  stronger,  but 
the  house  of  Saul  waxed  weaker  and  weaker."  But  when, 
after  five  and  a  half  years  of  confirming  the  authority  of 
Ish-bosheth,  Abner  felt  himself  strong  enough,  he  left  the 
east  side  of  the  Jordan  and  carried  his  army  over  near 
Gibeah,  Saul's  old  home,  with  the  evident  purpose  of  mak- 
ing Ish-bosheth  king  over  the  whole  nation.  David  did  not 
make  the  aggression,  but  he  resisted  aggression,  so  he  sends 
out  his  army  under  Joab  and  they  stand  opposed  to  each 
other  near  a  pool  of  water  at  Gibeah.    A  hostile  army  being 


164  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

brought  that  near  Hebron,  David  has  to  meet  it.  The  war 
then  was  evidently  forced  by  the  house  of  Saul. 

The  events,  in  order,  leading  up  to  David's  being  made 
king  over  all  Israel  are  as  follows :  The  first  event  is  Joab's 
great  victory  over  Abner  at  Gibeah.  Abner  proposed  that 
a  dozen  champions  from  each  side  fight  a  duel  and  let  that 
fight  settle  the  whole  question.  When  these  twenty- four 
men  met  they  met  with  such  fury  that  at  the  first  stroke 
every  man  on  either  side  killed  his  opponent  and  was  killed 
by  his  opponent,  so  that  the  duel  was  not  decisive,  but  it 
brought  on  the  fight.  Joab  then  gains  an  easy  victory.  One 
of  Joab's  brothers,  Asahel,  swift  of  foot,  follows  Abner, 
pursues  him,  and  your  history  tells  you  that  Abner  killed 
Asahel  by  thrusting  him  through  with  the  butt  end  of  his 
spear,  striking  backward.  I  suppose  the  end  of  the  spear 
was  sharp,  as  he  didn't  hit  him  with  the  point,  but  with  the 
sharpened  butt  of  it.  That  stopped  the  battle,  but  no  injury 
to  Joab  ever  stopped  him  until  he  wreaked  his  vengeance. 
So  here  it  ended  by  his  killing  Abner  for  the  death  of 
Asahel,  as  we  will  see  a  little  later. 

The  next  event,  in  order,  is  the  quarrel  between  Abner 
and  Ish-bosheth  on  account  of  Ish-bosheth's  protest  against 
the  infamous  deed  of  Abner,  and  the  next  is  Abner's  desert- 
ing to  David,  persuading  the  tribes  that  Ish-bosheth  is  just 
a  figurehead  and  his  cause  getting  weaker  all  the  time,  and 
David  is  getting  stronger,  and  the  right  thing  to  do  was  for 
all  to  come  in  and  recognize  the  king  that  God  had  chosen. 
Abner  came  to  David  making  that  proposition.  David  told 
him  that  the  first  thing  to  be  done  was  that  he  should  restore 
Michal,  his  wife,  who  had  been  given  to  another  man.  I 
do  not  know  that  any  particular  love  prompted  David. 
I  don't  see  why,  with  the  number  of  wives  he  already  had, 
he  had  any  love  to  pour  out  on  her,  but  if  he  had  any 
political  stroke  in  view  it  was  that  if  the  daughter  of  Saul 
was  brought  back  to  him  as  his  wife,  then  it  would  make  it 


DAVID,  KING  OF  JUDAH  165 

easier  for  the  followers  of  Saul  to  come  to  this  united 
family,  representing  both  sides,  as  it  was  proposed  by  Cath- 
erine de  Medici  to  unite  the  Huguenots  and  the  Romanists 
by  marriage  between  Henry  of  Navarre  on  the  Huguenot 
side  to  Margaret,  the  sister  of  King  Charles  of  France,  on 
the  other  side. 

The  next  event  is  the  murder  of  Abner  by  Joab — a  cold- 
blooded murder.  The  plan  of  it  was  agreed  on  between 
himself  and  his  brother  Abishai  that  they  would  send  for 
Abner,  who  had  left  after  his  interview  with  David,  and 
bring  him  back  in  David's  name,  and  then  Joab  proposed 
to  step  aside  and  inquire  about  his  health,  and  while  he  is 
inquiring  about  his  health  he  stabbed  him  under  the  fifth 
rib.  David  laments  the  death  of  Abner,  but  does  not  punish 
Joab.  On  the  contrary,  he  says,  "These  sons  of  Zeruiah 
are  too  hard  for  me."  His  sister,  Zeruiah,  had  three  sons — 
Joab,  Abishai  and  Asahel.  He  will  have  a  good  deal  more 
trouble  with  that  family  yet.  They  will  be  harder  than  they 
were  in  this  case. 

The  next  step  was,  seeing  that  Ish-bosheth  now  has  no 
standing;  Abner  dead,  no  general,  the  people  all  agreeing 
to  go  back  to  David,  two  ruffians  who  wanted  to  make  cap- 
ital with  David  assassinated  Ish-bosheth  and  carried  the 
news  of  their  assassination  to  David,  expecting  to  be  re- 
warded. He  rewarded  them  very  promptly — by  executing 
them.  These  are  the  events  in  order  that  led  up  to  the 
union  of  the  nation  under  David. 

The  children  born  to  David  in  Hebron  are  mentioned  in 
the  record :  Ammon,  or  Amnon,  the  son  of  Abinoam.  We 
will  find  out  about  him  later.  It  would  have  been  better 
if  he  had  never  been  born.  The  next  one  is  Chileab,  or 
Daniel,  as  he  is  called  in  Chronicles,  a  son  of  Abigail.  We 
do  not  know  whether  he  turned  out  well  or  ill,  as  he  drops 
out  of  the  history.  The  next  one  is  Absalom,  the  son  of 
Maacah,  the  daughter  of  Talmai,  the  king  of  Geshur.    We 


166  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

will  certainly  hear  of  him  later.  It  would  have  been  better 
if  he  had  never  been  born.  The  others  make  no  mark  in 
the  history  at  all.  O  this  polygamy !  This  polygamy !  The 
jealousies  of  polygamy !    It  is  an  awful  thing. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  character  of  Abner,  Ish-bosheth 
and  Joab.  Abner  was  a  man  of  considerable  talent  and 
influence,  but  unscrupulously  ambitious.  Ish-bosheth  had 
just  about  as  much  backbone  as  a  jelly-fish.  Joab  was  a 
great  general — a  very  stern,  selfish  warrior.  Himself  as 
unscrupulous  as  Abner,  though  not  as  disloyal.  But  we  are 
a  long  way  from  being  done  with  Joab.  A  great  text  for 
a  sermon  in  this  section  is :  "These  sons  of  Zeruiah  are  too 
hard  for  me ;"  that  is,  a  man  should  beware,  in  accompHsh- 
ing  his  purposes,  of  the  character  of  the  instruments  that 
he  associates  with  him.  If  he  calls  in  Turks,  Tartars,  and 
Huns  to  be  his  allies,  then  after  a  while  he  will  have  to 
settle  with  his  allies,  and  he  may  find  that  his  allies  are  too 
strong  for  him.  A  proverb  advises  us  to  keep  no  company 
with  a  violent  man.  We  are  always  in  danger  if  a  violent, 
unscrupulous  man  is  our  associate.  Like  poor  dog  Tray, 
we  may  get  a  beating  for  being  in  their  company. 

We  have  Joab's  reply  to  Abner  in  II  Sam.  2\2'j\  "Then 
Abner  called  to  Joab  and  said.  Shall  the  sword  devour  for- 
ever? Knowest  thou  not  that  it  will  be  bitterness  in  the 
latter  end?  How  long  shall  it  be  then,  ere  thou  bid  the 
people  return  from  following  their  brethren?"  Joab  was 
pursuing  them  sorely.  "And  Joab  said.  As  God  liveth,  if 
thou  hadst  not  spoken,  surely  then  in  the  morning  the  people 
had  gone  away,  nor  followed  every  one  his  brother."  What 
is  the  sense  of  that  last  verse?  Abner  speaks  and  wants  to 
know  why  they  are  pursuing  him,  and  Joab  says,  "If  thou 
hadst  not  spoken  then  every  man  would  not  be  pursuing  his 
brother."  I  will  leave  that  to  the  reader  and  the  commen- 
taries as  to  just  what  Joab  meant. 


DAVID,  KING  OF  JUDAH  167 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  state  of  the  nation  just  after  the  battle  of  Gilboa? 

2.  In   these   conditions   how   did   David   display   both  piety   and 
wisdom? 

3.  What  the  value  of  Hebron  as  his  home  and  headquarters  pending 
the  ratification  by  the  people? 

4.  What  was  the  first  expression  of  popular  approval? 

5.  Was  David's  embassy  to  the  men  of  Jabesh-gilead  the  sincere 
act  of  a  statesman,  or  an  adroit  stroke  of  a  politician? 

6.  What  defeated  this  generous  proposition  of  David  and  brought 
on  a  long  and  bloody  civil  war? 

7.  Explain  the  parenthetical  clause  of  II  Sam.  2 :  10  in  connection 
with  verse  i  of  chapter  3, 

8.  Judging  from  his  conduct  throughout,  what  motives  must  have 
inspired  Abner? 

9.  What  characterizes  this  war  of  seven  and  one-half  years? 

10.  Show  how  aggression  came  from  Abner. 

11.  State,  in  order,  the  events  leading  up  to  David's  being  made 
king  over  all  Israel. 

12.  What  children  were  born  to  David  in  Hebron,  and  what  may 
we  say  about  them? 

13.  What  the  character  of  Abner,  Ish-bosheth  and  Joab? 

14.  What  great  text  for  a  sermon  in  this  section? 

15.  What  the  sense  of  Joab's  reply  to  Abner.,  II  Sam.  2 :  27? 


XVII 

DAVID  MADE  KING  OVER  ALL  ISRAEL  AND  THE 
CAPTURE  OF  JERUSALEM  FOR  A  CAPITAL 

Scriptures:  References  in  the  Harmony,  pp.  io8,  109 

THIS  section  is  short,  but  intensely  important.  Please 
observe  the  method  of  the  harmonist  in  arranging 
the  text  of  the  reign  of  David  into  periods  of  War, 
Rest  and  Internal  Dissensions.  This  arrangement  is  admir- 
able for  topical  discussion,  but  does  not  follow  a  strict  chro- 
nological order  of  events.  It  is  a  characteristic  of  the  his- 
tories themselves  to  intersperse  here  and  there  in  the  details 
of  the  story  a  comprehensive  summary  extending  far  be- 
yond the  specific  details  which  precede  or  follow — for 
example,  II  Sam.  5:4-14. 

The  first  notable  event  of  this  section  is  that  David  is 
made  king  over  all  Israel,  at  Hebron.  For  this  consumma- 
tion David  himself  deserves  unstinted  praise.  There  was 
nothing  in  his  own  conduct  while  Saul  lived  or  after  his 
death  to  make  it  difficult  for  any  surviving  partisan  of  Saul's 
house  to  come  over  to  David.  Under  persecution  he  had 
been  loyal ;  in  opportunities  for  vengeance  he  had  been  mer- 
ciful; in  the  hour  of  triumph  his  spirit  was  not  arrogant 
but  conciliatory ;  in  the  long  postponement  of  the  divine 
purpose  he  was  not  impatient,  never  seeking,  as  some  of  his 
ancestors  had  done,  to  hasten  by  his  own  meddling  the 
ripening  of  Jehovah's  prophecies  and  promises.  And  when 
some  of  his  too  zealous  or  more  vengeful  partisans  took 
short  cuts  toward  the  destined  end  on  lines  of  their  own 
passions,  he  made  it  evident  by  signal  rebuke  that  he  was 

168 


DAVID,  KING  OF  ALL  ISRAEL  169 

not  personally  responsible  for  their  wrong-doing.  He  never 
rewarded  a  traitor  for  assassinating  a  member  of  the  house 
of  Saul  except  with  instant  execution  and  with  expressions 
of  the  most  pronounced  abhorrence  of  their  crimes.  In 
impassioned  and  evidently  sincere  elegy  he  bore  high  tribute 
to  the  merits  of  the  dead,  mingled  with  a  matchless  charity 
that  was  silent  as  to  their  demerits,  while  sending  benedic- 
tions to  those  who  befriended  them.  So  the  remnants  of 
Saul's  following  and  family  had  no  grievances  against  David 
to  forget  or  to  forgive. 

When  we  place  over  against  this  conduct  of  David  the 
conduct  of  Philip  II  of  Spain,  the  contrast  is  awful.  Philip 
openly  and  habitually  offered  large  rewards  to  assassins  who 
by  any  means  would  murder  his  enemies,  and  sang,  "Te 
Deum  Laudamus"  when  they  succeeded.  His  nature  was 
as  cold  as  a  frog,  poisonous  as  a  snake,  treacherous  as  a 
coyote,  cruel  as  a  panther.  In  wholesale  murder,  arson 
and  confiscation  he  was  the  prince  of  criminals,  eclipsing 
the  infamy  of  both  Nero  and  Herod,  and  in  stark  unctuous 
hypocrisy  none  in  the  annals  of  time  might  dare  to  claim 
equality  with  him,  much  less  pre-eminence  over  him.  He 
was  the  Monster  of  the  centuries.  It  certainly  must  have 
caused  Satan  himself  to  put  on  a  sardonic  grin  when  hear- 
ing Philip  called  ''His  most  Christian  majesty."  Spain,  at 
Philip's  accession,  was  the  dominant  world-power;  he  left 
it  with  none  so  poor  to  do  it  reverence.  Judea,  at  David's 
accession,  was  at  the  bottom  place  among  the  nations;  he 
left  it  on  top,  the  glory  of  the  world.  The  contrast  spells 
just  this:  David  was  a  saint,  Philip  was  a  devil. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  little  reason  prompted  those 
tribes,  now  eager  for  union,  to  promote  the  defection  which 
this  union  healed.  Under  the  dominant  influence  of  a  selfish 
leader  they  set  up  Ish-bosheth  against  the  known  will  of 
Jehovah.  They  warred  in  open  aggression  against  the  choice 
of  Jehovah.     They  made  no  decisive  effort  toward  pacifi- 


170  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

cation  while  they  had  a  leg  to  stand  on,  and  when  they  did 
come  back  into  the  union  their  expressed  reasons  for  return, 
while  evidently  now  sincere,  were  all  equally  strong  against 
their  making  the  original  breach.  Look  at  these  reasons 
and  see.  They  assign  three  reasons  for  their  return:  (i) 
*'Behold  we  are  thy  bone  and  thy  flesh."  (2)  'In  times 
past,  when  Saul  was  king  over  us,  it  was  thou  that  leddest 
out  and  broughtest  in  Israel."  (3)  "J^^ovah  said  to  thee, 
Thou  shalt  be  shepherd  of  my  people,  and  thou  shalt  be 
prince  over  Israel."  In  view  of  these  cogent  reasons,  one 
may  well  inquire,  Why,  then,  a  long  and  bloody  war  of 
division  ? 

The  steps  of  the  national  reunion  were  these: 

1.  An  armed  host  of  all  the  tribes  came  simultaneously 
to  David  at  Hebron  to  make  him  king. 

2.  Their  elders,  as  representatives,  enter  into  solemn 
covenant  with  him  before  Jehovah. 

3.  They  anoint  him  king  over  all  Israel. 

4.  A  three-days*  festival  of  great  joy  celebrates  the 
event.  All  these  steps  were  profoundly  significant,  and 
are  worthy  of  comment.  Concerning  the  first  step — ^the 
gathering  of  the  armed  host  to  Hebron — some  remarks  are 
pertinent : 

1.  The  total  number  of  armed  men  who  came  together 
simultaneously  from  all  of  the  tribes  was  enormous.  Apart 
from  the  captains,  and  with  the  contingent  of  Issachar  not 
stated,  the  total  is  339,000,  but  assuming  Issachar's  con- 
tingent to  be  somewhat  between  Zebulun's  and  Napthali's, 
say  40,000,  and  adding  the  captains  which  are  enumerated, 
the  total  would  be  380,221. 

2.  The  very  large  contingent  from  the  house  of  Aaron 
of  both  branches  shows  how  thoroughly  the  priesthood 
which  Saul  had  hated  stood  by  David. 

3.  The   contingents    from    the   least   prominent   tribes, 


DAVID,  KING  OF  ALL  ISRAEL  171 

Manasseh,  Zebulun,  Napthali,  Asher,  Reuben  and  Gad,  were 
all  out  of  proportion  greater  than  the  near-by  tribes. 

4.  The  small  contingent  from  Benjamin  is  explained  by 
the  fact  that  even  yet  the  greater  part  were  attached  to  the 
house  of  Saul,  but  the  reason  of  Judah's  small  number  is 
not  given.  The  trans-Jordanic  two-and-a-half  tribes  send 
a  third  of  the  total. 

5.  The  remark  concerning  the  contingent  of  the  western 
half — Manasseh — is  that  they  came  instructed  to  make 
David  king. 

6.  The  remark  concerning  the  two  hundred  leaders  of 
Issachar  has  been  the  theme  of  many  a  sermon:  "Men 
that  had  understanding  of  the  times  to  know  what  Israel 
ought  to  do."  Oh,  that  such  men  were  multiplied  in  our 
day! 

7.  Concerning  Zebulun's  50,000,  it  is  said  they  were  "not 
of  double  heart."  May  such  men  flourish  in  this  unstable, 
twisting  and  turning  generation ! 

8.  Indeed,  concerning  all  of  them,  it  is  said,  "They  came 
with  perfect  heart  to  make  David  king." 

It  was  quite  in  accord  with  the  patriarchal  and  repre- 
sentative constitution  of  the  nation  that  the  princes  and 
elders  of  the  tribes  should  act  for  them  in  entering  into 
covenant  with  David.  It  must  have  been  an  imposing  sight, 
to  see  nearly  half  a  million  armed  men  in  fifteen  distinct 
corps  waiting  at  Hebron,  while  their  statesmen,  prophets, 
priests  and  generals  deliberated  on  the  terms  of  the 
covenant. 

The  Covenant. — The  covenant  itself  doubtless  was  based 
on  the  charter  of  the  kingdom  as  defined  by  Moses  and 
Samuel,  which  safeguarded  the  rights  of  all  parties  con- 
cerned, towit:  Jehovah,  the  king,  the  national  assembly, 
the  religion,  and  the  people  at  large.  It  was  an  intensely 
religious  act,  seeing  it  was  "before  Jehovah."  Following 
this  covenant  came — 


172  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

The  Anointing. — David  had  already  been  twice  anointed, 
first  at  Bethlehem  privately  by  Samuel  as  an  expression  of 
Jehovah's  choice,  and  as  a  symbol  of  the  Spirit-power  that 
rested  on  him,  A  second  time  here  at  Hebron  his  anointing 
was  expressive  of  Judah's  choice,  but  now  this  third  more 
public  and  imposing  anointing  on  such  a  grand  occasion, 
following  such  a  covenant,  takes  on  a  wider  and  most 
charming  significance  so  appropriately  expressed  by  David 
himself  in  Psalm  133  that  it  seems  to  have  been  occasioned 
by  this  event: 

"Behold,  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is 
For  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity ! 
It  is  like  the  precious  oil  upon  the  head, 
That  ran  down  upon  the  beard, 
Even  Aaron's  beard ; 

That  came  down  upon  the  skirt  of  his  garments ; 
Like  the  dew  of  Hermon, 

That  cometh  down  upon  the  mountains  of  Zion: 
For  there  Jehovah  commanded  the  blessing, 
Even  life  for  evermore." 

It  is  certain  that  never  before  nor  since  was  there  such 
a  thorough  and  joyous  unity  of  the  nation,  and  such  broth- 
erly love  among  the  Jews,  nor  ever  will  be  until  erring  and 
dispersed  Israel,  long  exiled  from  Jehovah's  favor,  shall 
be  gathered  out  of  all  nations  and  turn  in  one  momentous 
day  with  such  penitence  as  the  world  has  never  known  to 
David's  greater  Son,  according  to  the  prophecies  of  Zecha- 
riah,  Ezekiel,  Isaiah  and  Paul.  Then,  indeed,  in  one  sense, 
will  the  ''Man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief"  be 
"anointed  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  His  fellows"  be- 
cause He  sees  "The  travail  of  His  soul"  concerning  Israel 
and  is  satisfied.  We  might  well  look  to  a  greater  fulfilment 
when  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  have  become  the. kingdom 
of  our  Lord  and  His  Christ,  at  which  time  more  appropri- 
ately than  ever  before  in  the  history  may  a  redeemed  and 
united  world  unite  in  singing  the  greatest  human  coronation 
hymn, 


DAVID,  KING  OF  ALL  ISRAEL  173 

"Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem 
And  crown  Him  Lord  of  All !" 

The  Festival. — Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feature  of 
the  whole  occasion  is  the  provision  made  for  entertaining 
a  half  million  people  for  three  days.  Our  text  says,  ''And 
they  were  there  with  David  three  days,  eating  and  drinking: 
for  their  brethren  had  made  preparation  for  them.  More- 
over, they  that  were  nigh  unto  them,  even  as  far  as  Issachar 
and  Zebulun  and  NaphtaH,  brought  bread  on  asses,  and  on 
camels,  and  on  mules,  and  on  oxen,  victual  of  meal,  cakes 
of  figs,  and  clusters  of  raisins,  and  wine,  and  oil,  and  oxen, 
and  sheep  in  abundance :  for  there  was  joy  in  Israel."  This 
great  festival  of  joy  not  only  reminds  us  of  the  sacrificial 
feast  following  the  covenant  at  Sinai  (Ex.  24:1-11),  but 
prefigures  the  one  announced  in  later  days  by  Isaiah  thus : 
"And  in  this  mountain  will  Jehovah  of  hosts  make  unto  all 
people  a  feast  of  fat  things,  a  feast  of  wines  on  the  lees,  of 
fat  things  full  of  marrow,  of  wines  on  the  lees  well  refined. 
And  He  will  destroy  in  this  mountain  the  face  of  the  cover- 
ing that  covereth  all  peoples,  and  the  veil  that  is  spread  over 
all  nations.  He  hath  swallowed  up  death  forever;  and  the 
Lord  Jehovah  will  wipe  away  tears  from  off  all  faces ;  and 
the  reproach  of  His  people  will  He  take  away  from  off  all 
the  earth,"  Isa.  25 : 6-8,  or  that  greater  festival  adverted  to 
by  our  Lord  when  He  said  concerning  the  salvation  of  the 
multitudinous  thousands  of  the  Gentiles,  ''Many  shall  come 
from  the  East  and  the  West,  and  the  North  and  the  South, 
and  shall  recline  at  the  table  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac  and 
Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

The  auspices  for  the  nation  were  all  propitious.  They 
have  a  king  over  them,  not  like  other  nations,  but  a  king 
after  God's  own  heart.  The  rights,  powers  and  privileges 
of  all  parties  interested  were  all  clearly  defined  and  solemn- 
ized by  imposing  ceremonies  of  religion.  Here  was  God's 
choice  of  the  man,  the  ratification  by  the  national  assembly, 


174  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

bonds  of  charter  and  covenant,  the  presence  and  concurrence 
of  prophet  and  priests,  to  which  may  be  added,  in  the  words 
of  our  text,  "And  all  the  rest  also  of  Israel  were  all  of  one 
heart  to  make  David  king."  The  plan  of  the  kingdom,  and 
its  start  are  perfect.  If  failure  shall  come  in  later  days, 
as  come  it  will,  it  will  be  for  no  fault  in  the  plan. 

The  Taking  of  Jerusalem. — David's  first  act  of  royalty 
tends  to  promote  and  perpetuate  the  union,  namely,  the 
securing  of  a  central  capital,  strong  for  defence  or  aggres- 
sion, and  not  likely  to  promote  tribal  jealousy.  It  would 
not  do  to  make  Hebron,  distinctly  a  city  of  Judah,  the  na- 
tional capital,  nor  yet  Gibeah  of  Benjamin,  where  Saul  had 
reigned.  It  must  be  a  new  place  which  commanded  the 
Arabah,  the  Negeb,  the  Mediterranean  coast,  and  all  the 
highways  from  North  to  South  and  East  to  West.  To  meet 
these  conditions  there  was  but  one  place,  the  city  whose 
citadel  was  held  by  the  Jebusites ;  part  of  it  lay  in  Judah's 
allotted  territory  and  part  in  Benjamin's,  but  neither  had 
driven  the  Jebusites  from  the  citadel  which  overawed  the 
city. 

Memories  of  the  Place. — It  had  been  the  city  of  Melchize- 
dek,  king  of  peace  and  righteousness,  priest  of  the  Most 
High  God,  to  whom  Abraham  had  paid  tithes,  and  type  of 
our  Lord,  David's  greater  son.  There,  also,  on  Mount 
Moriah,  in  the  greatest  typical  act  of  the  ages,  Abraham 
came  to  offer  up  his  well-beloved  son,  Isaac,  the  child  of 
promise,  and  there,  in  a  type  of  our  Lord's  resurrection,  was 
Isaac  saved.  The  authority  of  Moses  still  cried,  ''Drive 
out  these  Jebusites,"  so  David  called  the  united  nation  to 
arms. 

The  selection  of  a  capital  for  a  nation  made  up  of  varied 
and  jealous  constituencies  calls  for  the  highest  wisdom  and 
the  broadest  spirit  of  compromise.  Every  student  of  our 
national  history  will  recall  what  a  perplexing  thing  it  was 
for  our  fathers  to  agree  on  the  site  of  a  national  capital. 


DAVID,  KING  OF  ALL  ISRAEL  175 

Philadelphia,  the  continental  capital,  would  not  do,  nor 
would  Annapolis,  where  Washington  returned  his  sword  at 
the  close  of  the  war,  nor  New  York,  with  its  Wall  Street, 
where  Washington  was  inaugurated.  A  district,  ceded  by 
Virginia  and  Maryland  as  an  inalienable  national  possession, 
was  the  compromise,  just  as  here  Jerusalem,  lying  partly  in 
Judah  and  partly  in  Benjamin,  becomes  the  capital,  and  yet 
to  be  conquered  by  the  united  force  of  the  nation,  giving 
all  a  special  interest  in  it.  "For  similar  reasons,"  says  a  fine 
commentator,  "promotive  of  national  union,  we  have  seen 
Victor  Emmanuel  made  king  of  a  united  Italy,  change  his 
capital,  first  from  Turin  in  Lombardy  to  Florence  in  Tus- 
cany, and  then  to  Rome,  the  ancient  imperial  city."  So  now, 
David,  the  wisest  and  most  prudent  of  monarchs,  avails 
himself  of  the  enthusiasm  of  a  united  nation  and  the  pres- 
ence of  a  great  army  to  lead  them  to  storm  the  citadel  of 
the  Jebusites. 

Two  incidents  of  that  great  victory  are  worthy  of  note: 
(i)  the  scornful  greeting  of  the  Jebusites,  confident  in  the 
impregnabiHty  of  their  fortress:  "Even  with  the  blind  and 
the  lame  to  hold  the  walls  he  cannot  come  in  hither."  (2) 
David's  offer  to  reward  the  one  who  would  scale  the  wall, 
the  position  of  commander-in-chief  of  his  army,  won  by 
his  nephew  Joab.    Following  the  conquest  comes  the 

Rapid  Fortification, — He  lengthened,  strengthened  and 
connected  the  walls  of  the  city.  Indeed,  there  was  reason 
for  haste,  as  storms  of  war  were  gathering  from  every  point 
of  the  horizon. 

Two  results  follow  the  union  of  the  nation  under  such  a 
king,  and  the  rapid  conquest  and  fortification  of  such  a 
capital:  (i)  David  waxed  stronger  and  stronger  ;  (2)  neigh- 
boring nations,  jealous  and  alarmed,  prepare  to  pour  on  him 
a  tide  of  war. 

And  now,  before  we  dip  into  the  bloody  pages  of  these 
wars,  two  remarks  are  timely:    (i)   Throughout  David's 


176  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

reign,  every  act  of  his  administration  is  promotive  of  the 
national  unity  centered  at  Jerusalem;  (2)  Jerusalem  from 
this  date  forward  to  the  end  of  time  and  throughout  eternity 
v^ill  be  the  world's  chief  city,  either  in  type  or  antitype.  Its 
vicissitudes  in  subsequent  history  are  the  most  remarkable 
in  the  annals  of  time.  On  account  of  David's  work  and 
preparation  it  became  in  Solomon's  day  the  joy  of  the  whole 
earth.  The  Psalms  proclaim  its  glory  in  worship,  and  after 
its  fall  they  voice  the  exile's  lament:  *Tf  I  forget  thee, 
O  Jerusalem,  may  my  right  hand  forget  its  cunning  and 
my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth.'*  Babylon  cap- 
tured it ;  Persia  restored  it ;  Greece,  through  Alexander  the 
Great,  honored  it;  Antiochus  Epiphanes  defiled  it;  the  As- 
moneans  took  it ;  the  Messiah  heard  its  hosannahs  one  day 
and  its  "Crucify  Him"  another  day;  Rome  destroyed  it; 
the  Saracens  captured  it;  the  Crusader  re-captured  it;  the 
Turk  holds  it  and  Germany  covets  it.  Its  desolation  has 
lasted  nearly  two  thousand  years  and  will  last  until  the  ful- 
ness of  the  Gentiles  comes  in.  Its  greatest  glory  is  that  its 
temple  symbolized  the  churches  of  the  living  God,  and  the 
city  itself  symbolized  the  Heavenly  Jerusalem,  which  is  the 
mother  of  all  the  saints.  [The  author's  reference  to  Ger- 
many's desire  to  acquire  Jerusalem  was  written  long  before 
the  Great  War  which  has  witnessed  the  Germanic-Turkish 
alliance.     The  words  seem  prophetic. — Editor.] 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the   method   of   the   harmonist   in   arranging  the  text 
of  David's  reign,  extending  from  page   108  to   163.  inclusive? 

2.  'What  a  characteristic  of  the  histories  themselves? 

3.  What  the  first  notable  event  of  this   section? 

4.  What  credit  was   due   David   himself   in  this   great  consum- 
mation? 

5.  Contrast    David's    course   in   this   matter   with    the    character 
and  polity  of  Philip  IT  of  Spain. 

6.  What  reasons  assigned  by  the  tribes  for  their  return  to  David, 
and  the  bearing  of  their  reasons  on  their  defection? 

7.  What  the  several  steps  of  this  national  reunion? 


DAVID,  KING  OF  ALL  ISRAEL  177 

8.  What  the  notable  particulars  of  the  armed  hosts  who  assem- 
bled? 

9.  What  the   representative  act   of   the   elders? 

10.  What  of  the   covenant  itself? 

11.  What  of  the  anointing? 

12.  What  of  the  three  days*  festival? 

13.  What  the  first  kingly  act  of  David  to  strengthen  and  per- 
petuate this  national  union? 

14.  What   place    selected    for    the    capital,    its    advantages,    and 
memories  ? 

15.  What  the   incidents    of    its    capture? 

16.  What   steps   taken   to    fortify   it? 

17.  What    two    results    naturally    followed    this    union    of    the 
nation  under  such  a  king  in  such  a  capital  ? 

18.  What   the   position   of   Jerusalem   henceforward   among  the 
cities  of  the   world? 

19.  Relate  some  of  its  vicissitudes  in  subsequent  history. 


XVIII 

THE  WARS  OF  DAVID 

Scriptures:  References  in  the  Harmony,  pp.  110-114,  1 18-125 

OUR  last  chapter  intimated  that  the  union  of  the  nation 
under  such  a  king  as  David,  in  such  a  capital,  would 
naturally  excite  the  jealousy  and  alarm  of  all  neigh- 
boring heathen  nations.  This  section  commences  thus: 
"And  when  the  Philistines  heard  that  they  had  anointed 
David  king  over  Israel,  all  the  Philistines  went  up  to  seek 
David." 

Your  attention  has  already  been  called  to  the  necessity  of 
breaking  the  power  of  the  hostile  heathen  nations  lying  all 
around  Judea,  if  ever  the  Jewish  nation  is  to  fulfil  its  mis- 
sion to  all  other  nations.  The  geographical  position  of 
Judea,  which  is  the  best  in  the  world  for  leavening  the 
nations  with  the  ideas  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  if  it  main- 
tained its  national  purity  and  adherence  to  Jehovah,  also 
made  it  the  most  desirable  possession  for  other  peoples 
having  far  different  ideals.  As  the  salvation  of  the  world, 
including  these  very  hostile  nations,  depended  on  the  per- 
petuity and  purity  of  Israel,  these  nations,  through  whom 
came  idolatry  and  national  corruption,  must  be  broken, 
hence  the  seeming  cruelty  and  partiality  of  Jehovah's  order 
through  Moses  to  destroy  the  Canaanites,  root  and  branch, 
and  to  avoid  the  corruptions  of  the  other  nations,  were 
meant  as  mercy  and  kindness  to  the  world. 

The  nations  against  which  David  successfully  warred,  so 
far  as  our  text  records  them,  were  the  Philistines,  the 
Ammonites,  the  Syrians  of  Zobah,  the  Syrians  of  Damas- 

178 


THE  WARS  OF  DAVID  179 

cus,  the  Moabites,  and  the  Edomites.  He  had  previously 
smitten  the  Amalekites  of  the  Negeb.  On  these  wars  in 
general  the  following  observations  are  noteworthy: 

1.  He  was  never  the  aggressor. 

2.  He  never  lost  a  battle. 

3.  His  conquest  filled  out  the  kingdom  to  the  boundaries 
originally  promised  to  Abraham. 

4.  The  spoils  of  all  these  wars,  staggering  credulity  in 
their  variety  and  value,  were  consecrated  to  Jehovah,  mak- 
ing the  richest  treasury  known  to  history. 

5.  By  alliance  without  war  he  secured  the  friendship  of 
Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  most  valuable  to  him  and  to  his  son 
Solomon.  As  Phoenicia,  through  the  world-famous  fleets  of 
Tyre  and  Sidon,  commanded  the  Mediterranean  with  all  its 
marine  commerce,  and  as  David  ruled  the  land  through 
whose  thoroughfares  must  pass  the  caravans  carrying  this 
traffic  to  Africa,  Arabia,  India,  Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  it 
was  of  infinite  value  to  both  to  be  in  friendly  alliance.  To 
these  merchant-princes  it  was  of  incalculable  advantage  that 
all  the  land  transportation  of  their  traffic  should  lie  within 
the  boundaries  of  one  strong  and  friendly  nation  rather  than 
to  have  to  run  the  gauntlet  between  a  hundred  irresponsible 
and  predatory  tribes,  while  to  David,  apart  from  the  value 
of  this  peaceful  commerce,  the  whole  western  border  of 
Judea  along  the  Mediterranean  coast  was  safe  from  inva- 
sion by  sea  so  long  as  friendship  was  maintained  with 
Hiram,  king  of  the  sea. 

6.  By  the  voluntary  submission  of  Hamath  after  his 
conquest  of  Damascus,  he  controlled  the  famous  historic 
^'Entrance  into  Hamath,"  the  one  narrow  pathway  of  traf- 
fic with  the  nations  around  the  Caspian  Sea,  thus  enabHng 
David  to  reach  those  innumerable  northern  hordes  so  graph- 
ically described  in  later  days  by  Ezekiel,  the  exile-prophet. 

7.  By  the  conquest  of  Damascus  he  controlled  the  only 
caravan-route  to  the  Euphrates  and  Mesopotamia,  since  the 


180  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

desert  lying  east  of  the  trans-Jordanic  tribes  was  practically 
impassable  for  trade  and  army  movement  from  a  lack  of 
water.  We  have  seen  Abraham,  migrating  from  Ur  of  the 
Chaldees,  low  down  on  the  Euphrates,  compelled  to  ascend 
that  river  for  hundreds  of  miles  in  order  to  find  an  acces- 
sible way  to  the  Holy  Land  through  Damascus.  In  his  day, 
also  Chedorlaomer's  invasion  had  to  follow  the  same  way, 
as  we  will  see  later  invasions  do  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  time, 
which  at  last  conquered  David's  Jerusalem. 

8.  By  the  conquest  of  Ammon,  Moab  and  Edom,  all  the 
Arabah  passed  into  his  hands,  checkmating  invasion  by 
Arabian  hordes,  as  well  as  barring  one  line  of  invasion  from 
Egypt.  By  the  conquest  of  the  Philistines  and  Amalekites 
the  other  two  ways  of  Egyptian  invasion  were  barred.  You 
should  take  a  map,  such  as  you  will  find  in  Hurlbut's  Atlas, 
and  show  how  David's  wars  and  peaceful  aUiances  safe- 
guarded every  border,  north,  east,  south  and  west. 

Besides  these  general  observations,  we  may  note  a  special 
feature  characterizing  these,  and  indeed  all  other  wars, 
prior  to  the  leveling  invention  of  gunpowder  and  other  high 
explosives,  namely,  much  was  accomplished  by  individual 
champions  of  great  physical  prowess  and  renown.  David 
himself  was  as  famous  in  this  respect  as  Richard,  the  Lion- 
hearted,  until  in  a  desperate  encounter,  related  in  this  sec- 
tion, his  life  was  so  endangered  that  a  public  demand  justly 
required  him  to  leave  individual  fighting  to  less  necessary 
men  and  confine  himself  to  the  true  duty  of  a  general — 
the  direction  of  the  movements  of  the  army. 

Your  text  recites  the  special  exploits  of  Jashobeam, 
Eleazer,  Shammah,  Abishai,  Benaiah,  or  Benajah,  after 
whom  my  father,  myself,  and  my  oldest  son  were  named. 
With  them  may  be  classed  the  ten  Gadites  whose  faces  were 
like  the  faces  of  lions  and  who  were  as  swift  as  the  moun- 
tain deer,  the  least  equal  to  a  hundred  and  the  greatest 
equal  to  a  thousand.    These  crossed  the  Jordan  at  its  mighty 


THE  WARS  OF  DAVID  181 

flood  and  smote  the  Philistines  in  all  its  valley,  east  and 
west. 

Quite  to  the  front  also,  as  giant-killers,  were  Sibbecai, 
Elhanan  and  Jonathan's  nephew.  Of  others,  all  mighty 
heroes,  we  have  only  a  catalogue  of  names  as  famous  in 
their  day  as  Hercules,  Theseus,  and  Achilles,  Ajax,  Ulysses, 
Horatius,  and  King  Arthur's  Knights  of  the  Round  Table, 
but,  as  philosophizes  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  "Ivanhoe"  con- 
cerning the  doughty  champions  at  the  tourney  of  Ashby  de 
la  Zouch :  'To  borrow  lines  from  a  contemporary  poet, 

'The  knights  are  dust, 

And  their   good   swords   rust, 

Their    souls    are   with    the    saints,    we    trust,' 

while  their  escutcheons  have  long  mouldered  from  the  walls 
of  their  castles;  their  castles  themselves  are  but  green 
mounds  and  shattered  ruins ;  the  place  that  once  knew  them 
knows  them  no  more.  Nay,  many  a  race  since  theirs  has 
died  out  and  been  forgotten  in  the  very  land  which  they 
occupied  with  all  the  authority  of  feudal  proprietors  and 
lords.  What  then  would  it  avail  to  the  reader  to  know 
their  names,  or  the  evanescent  symbols  of  their  martial 
rank?" 

One  exploit  of  three  of  these  champions  deserves  to  Hve 
forever  in  literature.  It  thrills  the  heart  by  the  naturalness 
of  its  appeal  to  the  memory  of  every  man  concerning  the 
precious  things  of  his  childhood's  home.  David  was  in  his 
stronghold,  the  Cave  of  Adullam,  weary  and  thirsty.  Beth- 
lehem and  his  childhood  rise  before  him :  ''O  that  one  would 
give  me  water  to  drink  of  the  Well  of  Bethlehem  that  is 
by  the  gate!"  His  exclamation  thrills  like  Woodworth's 
famous  poem, 

"How  dear  to  my  heart  are  the  scenes  of  my  childhood, 
As   fond  recollection  presents  them  to  view! 

The  orchard,  the  meadow,  the  deep-tangled  wildwood, 
And  ev'ry  loved  spot  which  my  infancy  knew." 


18^  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

David's  longing  for  water  from  that  particular  well,  and 
Woodworth's  *'01d  Oaken  Bucket"  harmonize  with  my  own 
experience  whenever  I  am  delirious  with  fever.  I  always 
see  a  certain  spring  on  my  father's  plantation  issuing  from 
the  moss-covered,  fern-bordered  rocks,  and  filling  a  sunken 
barrel.  Hard  by,  hanging  on  a  bush,  is  the  gourd  which, 
when  dipped  into  the  cold,  clear  spring,  is  more  precious 
to  thirsty  lips  than  the  silver  tankards  or  gold  drinking 
cups  of  kings ;  only  in  my  fever-thirst  I  never  am  able  to 
get  that  gourd  to  my  lips. 

Three  of  David's  mighty  men  heard  the  expression  of 
his  longing  for  that  water  out  of  the  Well  of  Bethlehem, 
and  slipping  quietly  away,  not  caring  that  a  Philistine  gar- 
rison held  Bethlehem,  the  three  men  alone  break  through 
the  defended  gate  and  under  fire  draw  water  from  the  well 
and  bring  a  vessel  of  it  over  a  long,  hot  way  to  thirsty  David. 
It  touched  his  heart  when  he  saw  their  wounds.  He  could 
not  drink  water  purchased  with  their  blood,  but  poured  it 
out  as  a  libation  to  such  great  and  devoted  friendship. 

Some  other  incidents  of  the  Philistine  war  are  worthy  of 
comment : 

1.  So  great  was  the  defeat  of  the  Philistines  in  their 
first  battle,  where  David,  under  divine  direction,  attacked 
the  center  of  their  army,  the  scene  is  named  "Baal-Perazim," 
i.e.,  'The  place  of  breaking  forth."  Splitting  their  column 
wide  open  at  its  heart,  he  dispersed  them  in  every  direction. 
They  even  left  their  gods  behind  them  to  be  burned  by 
David's  men.  We  need  not  be  startled  at  the  burning  of 
such  gods,  for  history  tells  of  one  nation  that  ate  their  god, 
made  out  of  dough,  in  times  of  famine.  This  breaking  of  a 
battle-center  was  a  favorite  method  with  Napoleon  later, 
and  vainly  attempted  by  Lee  at  Gettysburg. 

2.  In  the  second  great  battle,  again  following  divine 
direction,  he  avoided  the  center  where  they  expected  his 
attack  as  before  and  were  there  prepared  for  him  this  time, 


THE  WARS  OF  DAVID  183 

and  "fetched"  a  compass  to  their  rear,  sheltered  from  their 
view  by  a  thick  growth  of  balsam  trees,  and  on  hearing  "a 
sound  of  a  going"  in  these  trees,  struck  them  unawares  and 
overthrew  them  completely. 

So  Stonewall  Jackson,  his  movements  sheltered  from 
observation  by  the  trees  of  the  wilderness,  marched  and 
struck  in  his  last  and  greatest  victory  at  Chancellorsville. 
And  so  did  that  master  of  war,  Frederick  the  Great,  screened 
by  intervening  hills,  turn  the  Austrian  columns  and  win  his 
greatest  victory  at  Leuthen.  Major  Penn,  the  great  Texas 
lay-evangelist,  preached  his  greatest  sermon  from  "This 
fetching  a  compass,"  and  "When  thou  hearest  the  sound 
of  a  going  in  the  mulberry  trees,  bestir  thyself."  His  appli- 
cation was:  (a)  Let  great  preachers  attack  the  center, 
as  David  did  at  Baal-Perazim.  (b)  But  as  I  am  only  a  lay- 
man I  must  fetch  a  compass  and  strike  them  in  the  rear 
where  they  are  not  expecting  attack,  (c)  As  the  signal  of 
assault  was  the  sound  of  a  going  in  the  mulberry  trees, 
which  we  interpret  to  mean  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
going  before,  we  must  tarry  for  that  power,  for  without 
it  we  are  bound  to  fail,  (d)  But  that  power  being  evident, 
let  every  member  of  the  church  bestir  himself."  On  this 
last  point  his  zealous  exhortation  puts  every  man,  woman 
and  child  to  working. 

3.  The  third  incident  of  this  war  was  its  culmination. 
He  pressed  his  victory  until  "he  took  the  bridle  of  the 
mother  city  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Philistines ;"  that  is,  he 
captured  Gath  and  the  four  other  cities,  or  daughters,  that 
had  gone  from  it.  To  take  the  bridle  of  a  horse  from  the 
hand  of  a  rider  is  to  make  that  horse  serve  the  new  master, 
so  Gath  and  her  daughters  paid  tribute  to  David  and  served 
him — quite  a  new  experience  for  the  Philistines. 

4.  The  result  of  these  great  achievements  is  thus  ex- 
pressed :  "And  the  fame  of  David  went  out  into  all  lands ; 
and  the  Lord  brought  the  fear  of  him  on  all  nations." 


184  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

The  occasion  of  his  next  war,  the  one  with  Ammon,  was 
remarkable.  Nahash,  the  king  of  Ammon,  held  very  friendly- 
relations  with  David.  The  fact  is  that  he  may  have  been  the 
father  of  Amasa,  a  son  of  David's  sister,  Abigail.  Anyway, 
the  relations  between  them  had  been  very  pleasant,  so  when 
Nahash  died,  David,  out  of  the  kindness  of  his  heart,  always 
remembering  courtesies  shown  him,  sent  a  friendly  embassy 
to  Hanun,  the  son  of  Nahash,  but  the  princes  of  Ammon 
said  to  the  young  king,  "Do  you  suppose  that  love  for  your 
father  prompted  David  to  send  these  men?  He  sent  them 
to  spy  out  the  land  so  that  he  can  make  war  successfully 
against  us."  This  evil  suggestion  led  the  young  king  to  do 
a  very  foolish  thing,  and  one  that  violated  all  international 
policy.  He  arrested  these  ambassadors  and  subjected  them 
to  the  greatest  indignity.  Their  venerable  beards  were  cut 
off.  I  don't  know  whether  that  means  cut  off  half-way  or 
just  shaved  off  one  side  of  the  face.  Then  he  cut  off  their 
long  robes  of  dignity  so  they  would  be  bob-tailed  jackets 
striking  about  the  hips,  and  sent  them  home.  No  mortifica- 
tion could  exceed  theirs.  Somebody  told  David  about  it 
and  he  sent  this  word  to  them:  *'Tarry  at  Jericho  until 
your  beards  grow  out." 

A  deacon  of  the  First  Church  at  Waco,  when  I  was  pas- 
tor, whenever  a  young  member  of  the  church  would  propose 
some  innovation  on  the  customs  of  the  church,  would  draw 
up  his  tall  figure — ^he  was  quite  tall — and  would  reach  out 
his  long  arm  and  point  at  the  young  man  and  say,  "My 
young  brother,  you  had  better  tarry  at  Jericho  until  your 
beard  grows  out."  It  was  very  crushing  on  the  young 
brother,  and  I  used  to  exhort  the  deacon  about  his  curt  way 
of  cutting  off  members  who,  whether  young  or  old,  had 
a  right  equal  to  his  own  to  speak  in  conference. 

Having  practiced  that  unpardonable  indignity  upon  the 
friendly  ambassadors,  the  Ammonites  know  they  must  fight, 
since  they  have  made  themselves  odious  to  David,  so  they 


THE  WARS  OF  DAVID  185 

raise  an  enormous  sum  of  money,  a  thousand  talents  of 
silver,  and  hire  33,000  men  from  the  Syrians — the  different 
branches  of  the  Syrians.  Some  of  them  were  horsemen 
from  across  the  Euphrates,  some  from  Tob,  some  from 
Maacah,  and  the  rest  of  them  from  Zobah.  David  sends 
Joab  at  the  head  of  his  mighty  army  of  veterans  to  fight 
them.  The  Ammonites  remain  in  their  fortified  city  of 
Rabbah,  and  as  Joab's  army  approaches,  33,000  Syrians 
come  up  behind  them,  and  Joab  sees  that  there  is  a  battle 
to  be  fought  in  the  front  and  in  the  rear,  so  he  divides  his 
army  and  takes  his  picked  men  to  attack  the  Syrians,  and 
commands  Abishai,  his  brother,  to  go  after  the  Ammonites 
as  they  pour  out  of  their  city  to  attack  in  front.  Joab  says 
to  his  brother,  "If  the  Syrians  are  too  strong  for  me,  you 
help  me,  and  if  the  Ammonites  are  too  strong  for  you,  then 
I  will  come  and  help  you,"  and  so  they  fight  both  ways  and 
whip  in  both  directions  with  tremendous  success.  Joab 
destroys  the  Syrians,  and  Abishai  drives  the  Ammonites 
back  under  the  walls  of  their  city. 

That  victory  leads  to  another  war.  When  the  Syrians 
heard  of  the  overthrow  of  the  contingent  sent  to  succor 
Ammon,  they  sent  across  the  Euphrates  again  for  rein- 
forcements and  mobilized  a  large  home  army  to  fight  David. 
David  met  them  in  battle  and  blotted  them  off  the  map,  and 
having  disposed  of  the  Syrians,  at  the  return  of  the  season 
for  making  war,  he  sent  Joab  with  a  mighty  army  to  besiege 
the  city  of  Rabbah,  the  capital  of  the  Ammonites.  Joab 
besieges  them  and  when  he  sees  them  about  to  surrender 
he  sends  for  David  to  come  and  accept  the  surrender  and 
David  puts  the  crown  of  the  king  of  Ammon  on  his  own 
head.  Then  having  destroyed  the  Ammonites,  he  marches 
against  their  southern  ally,  Moab,  and  conquers  them.  Fol- 
lowing up  this  victory  he  leads  his  army  against  Edom,  and 
conquers  all  that  country.  This  war  lasts  six  months.  He 
gains   a     great  victory   over  the   Edomites  and    through 


186  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Abishai,  his  leader,  eighteen  thousand  of  the  Edomites  were 
slain.  The  heir  of  the  king  escapes  with  great  difficulty 
to  Egypt,  and  is  sheltered  there.  Joab  remained  six  months 
to  bury  the  dead  and  gather  up  the  spoils.  So  ends  this 
period  of  conquest. 

The  text  tells  you,  in  conclusion,  who  were  the  administra- 
tion officers  during  this  period.  You  will  find  it  on  page  122 
of  the  Harmony.  Joab  was  over  the  host,  Jehoshaphat  was 
recorder,  Zadok  and  Ahimelech  were  priests,  Seraiah  was 
scribe,  Benaiah,  or  Benajah,  was  over  the  Cherethites  and 
Pelethites,  and  David's  sons  were  chiefs  about  the  king. 

That  great  round  of  successes  is  followed  by  the  mag- 
nificent song  of  thanksgiving,  which  needs  to  be  specially 
analyzed  and  which  is  transferred  to  the  Psalter  as  Psalm  18. 

That  you  may  have  a  connected  account  of  these  wars, 
the  consideration  of  three  periods  is  deferred  to  the  next 
chapter : 

1.  The  great  sin  of  David,  with  its  far-reaching  conse- 
quences, n  Sam.  11:2 — 12:24. 

2.  His  treatment  of  the  Ammonites  after  the  fall  of 
Rabbah,  H  Sam.  12:31  and  I  Chron.  20:  3. 

3.  His  treatment  of  the  Moabites,  H  Sam.  S:2. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  necessity  of  breaking  the  power  of  the  hostile 
nations  within   and  around  Judea? 

2.  Show  why  the  geographical  position  of  Judea  was  favorable 
to  its  mission  of  leavening  all  nations  with  the  ideas  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  and  why  Judea  was  a  desirable  possession  to  those 
nations. 

3.  What  event  brought  a  tide  of  war  on  David? 

4.  According  to  the  record,  with  what  nations  did  he  wage 
successful  war? 

5.  What  four  general  observations  on  these  wars? 

6.  What  special  feature  characterized  them  and^  all  other  an- 
cient wars,  and  what  modern  inventions  have  now  divested  war  of 
this  feature? 

7.  Cite  the  names  of  some  of  David's  champions  and  their 
exploits. 


THE  WARS  OF  DAVID  187 

8.  How  does  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  "Ivanhoe,"  philosophize  on 
the  speedy  oblivion  coming  to   great   champions? 

9.  Recite  one  exploit  that  deserves  to  live  in  literature,  and 
why? 

10.  Cite  the  notable  characteristics  of  the  battle  of  Baal-Per- 
azim. 

11.  Name  the  more  decisive  battles  which  followed,  and  give 
illustrations  from  history  of  the  different  methods  of  attack  in 
those  two  battles. 

12.  Give  Major  Penn's  text  and  sermon  outline  on  some  words 
concerning  this   battle. 

13.  Explain :  "He  took  the .  bridle  of  the  mother  city  out  of 
the  hand  of  the  Philistines." 

14.  What  the  result  of  these  great  achievements? 

15.  Recite  the  occasion  of  the  war  with  Ammon  and  its  results, 
and  describe  the  first  battle. 

16.  Give  brief  statement  of  wars  with  Syria,  Moab  and  Edom. 

17.  With  a  map  before  you,  show  just  how  by  these  wars  and 
alliances  David  safeguarded  all  his  borders. 

18.  How   did  he   commemorate  his  victories? 

19.  How  did  he  celebrate  them? 

20.  Into  what  other  book  was  his  thanksgiving  song  trans- 
ferred, and  how  numbered  there? 


XIX 

THREE  DARK  EVENTS  OF  DAVID'S  CAREER 

Scriptures :  I  Sam.  1 1 :  i — 12 :  25  ;  12 :  31  and  I  Chron.  20 : 3 ; 
II  Sam.  8:2;  Harmony,  pp.  115-117 

IN  the  preceding  discussion,  three  dark  events  of  David's 
career  were  omitted,  first,  because  it  was  thought  best 
to  give  in  unbroken  connection  a  history  of  his  success- 
ful wars,  carrying  his  kingdom  to  its  promised  boundaries 
and  fining  the  world  with  his  fame ;  secondly,  because  the 
three  events  called  for  special  and  extended  treatment. 
Truly  the  wars  closed  in  a  blaze  of  glory,  for  "The  Lord 
gave  victory  to  David  whithersoever  he  went;"  *'his  king- 
dom was  exalted  on  high  for  his  people  Israel's  sake ;"  "So 
David  gat  him  a  great  name,"  according  to  the  gracious 
promise  of  Jehovah,  "I  will  make  unto  thee  a  great  name, 
like  unto  the  name  of  the  great  ones  that  are  in  the  earth," 
Indeed,  at  the  close  of  these  wars  his  was  the  most  illus- 
trious name  on  earth  and  his  kingdom  the  greatest. 

It  is  a  bitter  thing  to  give  to  this  luminous  glory  a  back- 
ground of  horrible  darkness.  Yet  fidelity  to  truth  and  the 
ages-long  value  of  the  lesson,  require  us  to  dip  the  brush 
that  paints  the  background  in  most  sombre  colors.  It  is 
characteristic  of  portrait  painters  to  use  a  flattering  brush, 
and  it  was  Cromwell  only  who  said  sternly  to  his  portrait- 
maker,  "Paint  me  as  I  am ;  leave  not  out  a  scar  or  blemish." 
What  was  exceptional  with  Cromwell  was  habitual  with 
inspiration.  It  describes  only  one  perfect,  ideal  man.  It 
indulges  in  no  hero-worship.  Noah's  drunkenness,  Jacob' 
meanness  and  duplicity,  Aaron's  golden  calf,  the  ill-advised 

188 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  189 

words  of  Moses,  the  despondency  of  Elijah,  the  lying  and 
swearing  of  Peter,  the  vengeful  spirit  of  the  beloved  John, 
the  awful  sin  of  David,  *'the  man  after  God's  own  heart," 
must  all  appear  in  the  pictures  when  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the 
limner. 

Concerning  the  best  of  men  standing  in  the  limelight 
of  infinite  holiness,  we  must  say  with  the  Psalmist,  ''I  have 
seen  an  end  of  all  perfection — for  thy  commandment  is 
exceeding  broad." 

The  three  dark  episodes  of  David's  war-career  made  the 
theme  of  this  chapter,  are:  (i)  David's  great  sin  in  the 
matter  of  Bathsheba  and  Uriah.  (2)  His  treatment  of  his 
Ammonite  captives.  (3)  His  treatment  of  his  Moabite 
captives. 

The  three  are  presented  in  one  view  because  it  is  probable 
that  the  second,  if  not  also  the  third,  arose  from  a  conscience 
blunted  by  the  first.  We  need  not  go  into  the  revolting 
details,  since  the  record  is  before  you,  but  consider  the 
history  only  in  the  light  of  its  practical  value,  seeing  it  was 
recorded  "for  our  admonition." 

So  far  as  the  first  and  greatest  sin  is  concerned,  it  has 
evoked  a  voluminous  literature.  In  the  "Pulpit  Commen- 
tary" alone  are  more  than  fifty  pages  of  condensed  homilies, 
and  in  Spurgeon's  "Treasury  of  David"  is  much  more,  but 
perhaps  the  best  homiletical  and  philosophical  treatment  you 
will  find  in  Taylor's  "David,  King  of  Israel."  His  outline 
of  discussion  is:  (i)  The  precursors  of  the  sin.  (2)  Its 
aggravations.  (3)  The  penitence  manifested.  (4)  The  for- 
giveness received.     (5)  The  consequences  flowing  from  it. 

After  all,  however,  the  most  searching  light  on  his  heart 
experiences  are  found  in  his  own  songs  of  conviction,  peni- 
tence and  forgiveness  in  the  following  order:  Psalms  38, 

6,  5i>  32. 

Borrowing  somewhat  from  Taylor's  order  and  treatment 
we  submit  this  outline: 


190  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

I.  The  precursors  of  David's  sin.  Sin  has  a  genesis  and 
development.  It  does  not  spring  into  life,  like  Minerva,  full 
grown.  James,  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  states  the  case 
thus :  "Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of 
God ;  for  God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  and  He  himself 
tempteth  no  man;  but  each  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is 
drawn  away  by  his  own  lust,  and  enticed.  Then  the  lust, 
when  it  hath  conceived,  beareth  sin,  when  it  is  full  grown, 
bringeth  forth  death,  James  i :  13-15.  What,  then,  the  ex- 
planatory antecedents  of  his  sin? 

1.  Since  his  crowning  at  Hebron  he  had  enjoyed  a  long 
course  of  unbroken  prosperity.  Before  that  event  he  had 
been  "emptied  from  vessel  to  vessel"  and  so  had  not  "settled 
on  his  lees,''  but  now  because  he  had  no  changes  he  becomes 
over-confident,  less  watchful  and  prayerful. 

2.  Up  to  the  time  of  this  sin  he  had  been  a  very  busy 
man,  leading  and  sharing  in  all  the  privations  and  hazards 
of  his  army,  but  now,  while  Joab  leads  the  army  against 
Kabbah,  "David  tarried  at  Jerusalem."  While  his  soldiers 
sleep  at  night  on  the  tented  field,  David  rises  from  his  day- 
time bed  of  luxury  to  look  at  eventide  on  Bathsheba.  How 
grim  must  have  been  the  rebuke  of  Uriah's  words:  "And 
Uriah  said  unto  David,  The  Ark  and  Israel,  and  Judah, 
abide  in  booths ;  and  my  lord  Joab,  and  the  servants  of  my 
lord,  are  encamped  in  the  open  field;  shall  I  then  go  into 
mine  house,  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and  to  lie  with  my  wife? 
As  thou  livest,  and  as  thy  soul  liveth,  I  will  not  do  this 
thing,"  II  Sam.  11: 11.  It  has  been  well  said,  "If 
Satan  tempts  busy  men,  idle  and  luxurious  men  tempt 
Satan." 

3.  He  had  prepared  himself  for  a  fall  at  the  weakest 
point  in  his  character  by  polygamy  and  concubinage,  which, 
while  tolerated  under  restrictions  under  Mosaic  law,  was 
expressly  forbidden  to  kings :  "He  shall  not  multiply  wives 
to  himself,"  which  was  the  Mosaic  prohibition  of  the  king- 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  191 

dom  charter,  Deut.  17:17.    Sensualism  is  the  sin  of  Oriental 
kings. 

4.  The  sense  of  irresponsibility  to  moral  law  creeps  with 
insidious  power  upon  the  rich  and  great  and  socially  dis- 
tinguished. The  millionaires,  the  upper  ten,  the  great  400 — 
what  avails  their  wealth  and  power  if  they  be  not  exempt 
from  the  obligations  of  the  seventh  commandment?  Let  the 
poor  be  virtuous.  The  king  can  do  no  wrong.  To  all  such 
people  the  lesson  is  hard :  **God  is  no  respecter  of  persons." 

5.  In  times  of  war  the  bridle  is  slipped  from  human 
passions. 

6.  Subservient  instruments  are  always  ready  to  act  as 
panderers  to  the  great,  while  obsequious,  high  society  pal- 
liates and  condones  their  offences. 

7.  In  such  conjuncture  always  comes  opportunity  as  a 
spark  of  fire  in  a  powder  magazine ;  millions  equally  sensual 
have  not  sinned  because  there  was  no  opportunity,  no  favor- 
able conjuncture  of  circumstances. 

XL  The  Sin  and  Its  Aggravations. — The  sin,  with  all 
its  progeny,  was  primarily  sin  against  God,  but  it  was  adul- 
tery with  Bathsheba,  ingratitude,  duplicity  and  murder  to 
Uriah,  complicity  in  crime  with  his  servants,  a  sin  against 
himself  and  family. 

1.  It  was  a  presumptuous  sin  against  Jehovah,  to  whose 
favors  it  was  ingratitude  and  to  whose  holiness  it  was  insult, 
and  to  whose  omniscience,  omnipresence  and  omnipotence 
it  was  a  brazen  dare. 

2.  It  was  a  violation  of  his  solemn  coronation  vow  at 
Hebron  as  expressed  in  his  own  Psalm  that  he  would  use 
his  kingly  office  to  put  down  offences,  and  not  for  indul- 
gences in  them. 

3.  From  his  very  exalted  position  as  king  over  God's 
people  it  caused  the  enemies  of  truth  to  blaspheme  then  and 
ever  since.  It  was  a  scandal  in  the  etymological  sense  of 
the  word,  a  stumbling-block,  over  which  thousands  in  every 


192  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

age  have  fallen.  An  inspired  writer  has  said,  *The  wicked 
eat  up  the  sins  of  my  people."  Like  buzzards  swarming 
around  carrion,  they  gather  and  feast  and  flap  their  wings 
in  gloating  when  a  Christian  sins. 

4.  It  served  then  and  does  now  as  an  excuse  for  worse 
and  smaller  men  to  repeat  the  offence  or  to  condone  other 
offences. 

5.  It  put  his  reputation  in  the  hands  of  the  servants 
employed  in  the  transaction,  and  paved  the  way  for  what- 
ever blackmail  the  unscrupulous  instrument,  Joab,  might 
choose  to  exact,  so  that  indeed  hereafter  "the  sons  of 
Zeruiah  will  be  too  hard  for  him."  Whoever  calls  in  Turks, 
Tartars  and  Huns  for  alHes  must  afterwards  reckon  with 
the  allies. 

6.  It  was  a  sin  against  the  devoted  friendship  of  his 
brave  champions,  Uriah,  the  Hittite,  and  his  comrade,  Bath- 
sheba's  father,  who  for  many  years  of  hazard  and  perse- 
cution had  been  his  bulwark. 

The  meanness  of  the  subterfuge  in  sending  for  Uriah  that 
the  offence  might  be  hidden  from  him  by  making  him  an 
unwitting  "cuckold,"  the  hypocrisy  of  sending  him  choice 
dishes  and  the  means  of  drunkenness  to  the  same  end,  and 
the  refined  cruelty  of  jmaking  him  the  carrier  of  the  letter 
which  contained  his  death  warrant,  the  deliberate  provision 
for  others  to  die  with  him  when  exposed  to  danger,  the 
order  to  withdraw  from  him  and  them  that  they  might  die, 
and  the  lying  ascription  of  such  death  to  the  chances  of  war, 
are  unsurpassed  in  criminal  history.  A  classic  legend  tells 
of  such  a  letter  carried  by  Bellerophon,  giving  rise  to  the 
proverb,  "Beware  of  Bellerophonic  letters." 

III.  The  Sin  on  the  Conscience. — We  may  not  suppose 
that  David  was  without  compunction  of  conscience  for  a 
whole  year  until  reproved  by  Nathan.  The  Psalms  38 
and  6  indicate  the  contrary.  While  his  crime  was  osten- 
sibly a  secret,  you  may  be  assured  that  it  was  an  open  secret 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  198 

which  greatly  damaged  the  king's  reputation,  of  which  he  is 
evidently  conscious.  Known  to  Joab  and  his  household 
servants,  it  would  be  whispered  from  lip  to  ear,  and  carried 
from  house  to  house.  Enemies  would  naturally  make  the 
most  of  it.  The  side-look,  the  shoulder-shrug,  and  many- 
winged  rumors  would  carry  it  far  and  wide.  Even  in  the 
house  of  God,  where  he  kept  up  the  form  of  worship,  know- 
ing ones  would  make  signs  and  comment  under  the  thinnest 
veil  of  confidence. 

IV.  Jehovah  Speaks  at  Last,  or  Nathan  and  David. — 
Whatever  was  David's  own  conception  of  his  sin,  or  the 
judgment  of  man,  our  record  says,  "But  the  thing  that 
David  had  done  displeased  the  Lord.  And  the  Lord  sent 
Nathan  unto  David."     Four  things  here  impress  the  mind: 

1.  God's  judgment  of  human  conduct  is  more  than 
man's  judgment.  It  is  the  chief  thing.  We  may  hold  out 
against  the  adverse  judgment  of  men  if  God  approves  in  the 
matter  of  the  thing  condemned,  but  there  is  no  withstanding 
the  disapproval  of  the  Holy  One. 

2.  The  fidelity  of  the  prophets  as  mouth-pieces  of  God. 
They  make  no  apologies,  nor  soften  words,  nor  have  respect 
of  persons.  They  speak  to  a  king  as  to  a  peasant — to  a  rich 
man  as  to  a  pauper. 

3.  The  prophet's  method  of  causing  David  to  pass  judg- 
ment on  himself  is  an  inimitable  parable  that  has  charmed 
the  world  by  its  simplicity,  brevity,  pathos  and  directness. 

4.  Its  application  is  like  a  bolt  of  lightning :  "Thou  art  the 
man !"  In  one  flash  of  light  the  heart  of  the  sin  is  laid  bare, 
and  judgment  follows  judgment  Hke  the  dreadful  strokes  of 
a  trip-hammer,  thus:  (a)  "The  sword  shall  never  depart 
from  thy  house.'*  (b)  "I  will  raise  up  evil  against  thee  in 
thine  own  house."  (c)  "What  thou  hast  done  secretly 
against  another  shall  be  done  against  thee  openly." 

V.  David's  Confession. — It  is  instant:  "I  have  sinned 
against  the  Lord."     There  is  no  trickery  nor  subterfuge, 


194  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

nor  evasion,  nor  defense.  His  confession  is  like  the  pub- 
lican's prayer,  who  stood  afar  off,  not  lifting  so  much  as  his 
eyes  to  heaven,  but  smiting  upon  his  breast,  and  saying, 
"God  be  merciful  to  me,  the  sinner."  The  inspired  prophet 
knew  his  penitence  was  genuine,  and  announces  pardon  for 
the  world  to  come,  but  chastisement  in  this  world,  thus 
explaining  those  later  words  of  Jesus  concerning  another 
and  greater  sin  which  is  eternal,  having  never  forgiveness 
neither  in  this  world  nor  the  next  world. 

VI.  The  Time  Penalties. — (i)  The  death  of  the  child 
begotten  in  sin.  (2)  Following  a  father's  evil  example, 
Amnon  assaults  his  sister,  Tamar.  (3)  Following  the 
father's  example,  and  with  much  more  justice,  Absalom 
murders  Amnon.  (4)  The  devil  once  loosed,  Absalom 
rebels  against  his  father.  (5)  There  being  now  no  restraint, 
Absalom  openly  degrades  David's  concubines,  and  this  too 
under  the  advice  of  Ahithophel,  Bathsheba's  grandfather, 
who  evidently  resents  the  shame  put  upon  his  grand- 
daughter. (6)  Joab  pitilessly  murders  Absalom,  in  open 
violation  of  the  father's  orders,  and  so  exacts  immunity  as 
blackmail  for  his  complicity  in  David's  sin.  (7)  Adonijah*s 
rebellion,  encouraged  by  Joab,  and  his  death.  Such  the  long 
train  of  evil  consequences  of  one  sin. 

Vn.  The  Sincerity  of  David's  Repentance. — It  is  evi- 
denced by  his  humility,  submission  and  hope  on  the  death  of 
his  child.  The  story  is  very  touching.  ''The  Lord  struck 
the  child  that  Uriah's  wife  bare  to  David  and  it  was  very 
sick."  The  child  was  much  beloved,  but  must  die  for  the 
parents'  sin.  This,  David  felt  keenly:  "This  baby  is  dying 
for  my  sin."  No  wonder  he  fasted  and  wept  and  prayed. 
The  submission  and  hope  are  manifested  after  the  child  is 
dead.  No  need  now  to  fast  and  pray  and  weep,  as  when  it 
was  yet  alive  and  perchance  might  be  saved.  The  death  is 
of  the  body  only  and  for  this  world  only.     He  lives  safe  and 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  195 

happy  in  that  better  world :  *'He  cannot  return  to  me,  but  I 
may  go  to  him." 

In  all  subsequent  ages  the  doctrines  of  these  words  have 
illumined  houses  of  mourning,  "I  shall  go  to  him." 

At  one  stroke  it  destroys  all  hope  of  visitation  from  the 
dead,  and  at  another  stroke  confers  all  hope  of  visitation  to 
the  dead,  with  all  the  joys  of  recognition  and  reunion. 

This  is  by  far  the  lightest  of  David's  penalties.  There  is 
no  hope  of  reunion  when  Amnon  and  Absalom  and 
Adonijah  die.  The  farewell  in  their  case  is  eternal.  The 
most  impressive,  therefore,  of  all  contrasts  is  the  hopeful 
lamentation  over  this  child,  and  the  hopeless  lamentation 
over  Absalom.     What  a  theme  for  a  sermon ! 

But  the  sincerity  of  his  penitence  is  best  evidenced  in  his 
Psalms.  While  the  38th  and  6th  convey  most  the  sense  of 
convicting  power.  Psalm  51,  through  the  ages,  has  been 
regarded  as  the  most  vivid  expression  of  contrition  and 
repentance.  Two  incidents  bearing  upon  his  sincerity  and 
genuine  penitence  cited  by  Taylor  are  worth  repetition : 

I.  The  testimony  of  Carlyle,  that  hater  of  all  shams  and 
hypocrisies,  in  his  "Lecture  on  the  Hero  as  Prophet,"  says : 

"Faults!  the  greatest  of  faults,  I  should  say,  is  to  be  conscious 
of  none.  Readers  of  the  Bible,  above  all,  one  would  think,  might 
know  better.  Who  is  there  called  the  man  of  God  according  to 
God's  own  heart?  David,  the  Hebrew  king,  had  fallen  into  sins 
enough;  blackest  crimes;  there  was  no  want  of  sins.  And  there- 
upon unbelievers  sneer  and  ask,  'Is  this  your  man  according  to 
God's  heart?'  The  sneer,  I  must  say,  seems  to  me  but  a  shallow 
one.  What  are  faults?  what  are  the  outward  details  of  a  life,  if  the 
inner  secret  of  it — the  remorse,  temptations,  true,  often  baffled, 
never-ending  struggle  of  it — be  forgotten?  It  is  not  in  man  that 
walketh  to  direct  his  steps.'  Of  all  acts,  is  not,  for  a  man, 
repentance  the  most  divine?  The  deadliest  sin,  I  say,  were  that 
same  supercilious  consciousness  of  no  sin.  That  is  death.  The 
heart  so  conscious  is  divorced  from  sincerity,  humility,  and  fact, 
is  dead.  It  is  pure,  as  dead,  dry  sand  is  pure.  David's  life 
and  history,  as  written  for  us  in  those  Psalms  of  his,  I  consider 
to  be  the  truest  emblem  ever  given  of  a  man's  moral  progress 
and  warfare  here  below.  All  earnest  souls  will  ever  discern  in 
it  the  faithful  struggle  of  an  earnest  human  soul  toward  what 
is  good  and  best.     Struggle  often  baffled  sore,  baffled   down  into 


196  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

entire  wreck,  yet  a  struggle  never  ended;  ever  vi^ith  tears,  repent- 
ance, true,  unconquerable  purpose  begun  anew.  Poor  human 
nature!  Is  not  a  man's  walking  in  truth  always  that — *a  succes- 
sion of  falls?'  Man  can  do  no  other.  In  this  wild  element  of  a 
life,  he  has  to  struggle  upward:  now  fallen,  now  abased;  and  ever 
with  tears,  repentance,  and  bleeding  heart,  he  has  to  rise  again, 
struggle  again,  still  onward.  That  his  struggle  be  a  faithful, 
unconquerable    one — that   is   the    question   of    questions." 

2.  The  effect  of  Psalm  51  on  Voltaire  when  he  read  it 
with  a  view  to  caricature  it.  Dr.  Leander  Van  Ess  tells  it 
as  an  undoubted  fact  that  Voltaire  once  attempted  to  bur- 
lesque this  Psalm,  and  what  was  the  result?  While  care- 
fully perusing  it,  that  he  might  familiarize  himself  with  the 
train  of  sentiment  which  he  designed  to  caricature,  he 
became  so  oppressed  and  overawed  by  its  solemn  devo- 
tional tone,  that  he  threw  down  his  pen  and  fell  back  half 
senseless  on  his  couch,  in  an  agony  of  remorse. 

But  if  Psalm  51  is  the  highest  expression  of  penitence, 
the  32nd  is  the  model  expression  of  the  joy  of  forgiveness : 

"Blessed  is  he  whose  transgression  is  forgiven, 
Whose  sin  is  covered. 
Blessed  is  the  man  unto  whom  Jehovah  imputeth  not  iniquity." 

See  the  use  Paul  makes  of  this  Psalm  in  his  great  argu- 
ment on  justification  by  faith. 

By  application  of  this  experience  of  David  we  learn  other 
serious  lessons. 

1.  The  pen  that  writes  the  letter  of  Uriah  must  also  write 
the  51st  Psalm. 

2.  It  is  easy  to  fall,  but  difficult  to  rise  again — a  thought 
most  vigorously  expressed  by  Virgil  and  less  vigorously 
rendered  by  Dryden : 

"The  gates  of  Hell  are  open  night  and  day; 
Smooth  the  descent,  and  easy  is  the  way; 
But  to  return  and  view  the  cheerful  skies. 
In  this  the  task  and  mighty  labor  lies." 
3.    "One   sin   another   doth   provoke; 
Murder's  as  near  to  lust  as  fire  to  smoke." 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  197 

4.  The  hardening  power  of  sin.     It  petrifies  spiritual 
sensitiveness  and  tenderness.  As  Burns  so  well  expresses  it : 

"I  waive  the  quantum  of  the  sin, 

The  hazard  of  concealing; 
But  och !  it  hardens  a'  within, 

And  petrifies  the  feelin'." 

5.  Sooner  or  later  all  extenuations  fail,  and  the  shifting 
of  the  blame  on  God  or  chance  or  circumstance.  There 
comes  one  at  last  to  the  naked  soul,  and  pointing  accusing 
finger,  says,  "Thou  art  the  man." 

"And  self  to  take  or  leave  is  free, 
Feeling  its  own  sufficiency : 
In  spite  of  science,   spite  of  fate, 
The  Judge  within  thee,  soon  or  late. 
Will  cry,  'Thou  are  the  man !' 
Say  not,  I   would,  but  could  not,  He 
Should  bear  the  blame  who  fashioned  me. 
Call  a  mere  change  of  motive,  choice ! 
Scorning  such  pleas,  the   inner  voice 
Cries  out,   Thou  art  the  man !' " 

Edgar  Allan  Poe  has  used  with  dramatic  efifect  Nathan's 
words,  "Thou  art  the  man,"  in  one  of  his  detective  stories. 
In  order  to  force  confession,  he  puts  the  body  of  the  mur- 
dered man  in  a  wine-case,  so  adjusted  on  springs  that  when 
the  lid  is  raised  by  the  murderer,  the  body  will  sit  up  and 
point  the  finger  at  him,  while  a  ventriloquist  will  make  the 
dead  lips  say,  "Thou  art  the  man !" 

6.  The  reproach  of  Uriah  has  found  expression  in  noble 
song: 

'The  Ark  of  God  is  in  the  field. 
Like  clouds  around  the  alien  armies  sweep; 

Each  by  his  spear,  beneath  his  shield. 
In  cold  and  dew  the  anointed  warriors  sleep. 

"And  can  it  be?  thou  liest  awake. 
Sworn  watchman,  tossing  on  thy  couch  of  down; 

And  doth  thy  recreant  heart  not  ache 
To  hear  the  sentries  round  the  leaguered  town? 


198  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

"Oh,  dream  no  more  of  quiet  life; 
Care  finds  the  careless  out ;  more  wise  to  vow 

Thine  heart  entire  to  faith's  pure  strife; 
So  peace  will  come,  thou  knowest  not  when  or  how." 

— Lyra  Apostolica. 

7.  On  the  gracious  words  of  pardon,  *The  Lord  hath  put 
away  thy  sin,"  Keble,  in  his  ''Christian  Year,"  thus  writes : 

"The  absolver  saw  the  mighty  grief, 

And    hastened    with    relief ; 
The  Lord  forgives;  thou  shalt  not  die; 
*Twas  gently  spoke,  yet  heard  on  high, 
And  all  the  band  of  angels,  us'd  to  sing 

Who  many  a  month  hath  turned  away 
With  veiled  eyes,   nor  owned  his  lay. 
Now  spread  their  wings  and  throng  around 

To  the  glad  mournful  sound. 
And  welcome  with  bright,  open  face 
The  broken  heart  to  love's  embrace. 
The  rock  is  smitten,  and  to  future  years 
Springs  ever  fresh  the  tide  of  holy  tears 

And  holy  music,  whispering  peace 
Till  time  and  sin  together  cease." 

— Keble,  "Sixth  Sunday  after  Trinity." 

It  has  been  not  improbably  supposed  that  a  connection 
exists  between  David's  great  sin,  through  its  hardening  of 
his  yet  impenitent  heart  and 

VIII.  His  Treatment  of  the  Conquered  Ammonites,  II 
Samuel  12:31  and  I  Chronicles  20:3. — As  this  matter  calls 
for  particular  and  honest  treatment  let  us  first  of  all  look  at 
the  text  in  three  English  versions.  The  American  Standard 
Revision  renders  the  two  paragraphs  thus:  **And  he 
brought  forth  the  people  that  were  therein,  and  put  them 
under  saws,  and  under  harrows  of  iron,  and  under  axes  of 
iron,  and  made  them  pass  through  the  brick-kiln ;  and  thus 
did  he  unto  all  the  cities  of  the  children  of  Amnion.  And 
David  and  all  the  people  returned  unto  Jerusalem,"  I  Sam. 
12 :  31.  "And  he  brought  forth  the  people  that  were  therein, 
and  cut  them  with  saws,  and  with  harrows  of  iron,  and  with 
axes.  And  thus  did  David  unto  all  the  cities  of  the  children 
of  Ammon.     And  David  and  all  the  people  returned  to 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  199 

Jerusalem/'  I  Chron.  20:3.  The  margin  puts  ''to"  for 
"under,"  and  adds :  *'Or,  with  a  sHght  change  in  the  Hebrew 
text,  'made  them  labor  at  saws,  etc.  ?' " 

Leeser's  Jewish  English  version  copies  in  both  passages 
the  American  Revision.  The  Romanist  Douay  English  ver- 
sion thus  renders  II  Samuel  12:31:  "And  bringing  forth 
the  people  thereof,  he  sawed  them,  and  drove  over  them 
chariots  armed  with  irons  and  divided  them  with  knives, 
and  made  them  pass  through  brick-kilns:  so  did  he  to  the 
children  of  Ammon.  And  David  returned  with  all  the 
people  to  Jerusalem."  I  Chron.  20 : 3  :  "And  the  people  that 
were  therein  he  brought  out :  and  made  harrows,  and  sleds, 
and  chariots  of  iron,  to  go  over  them,  so  that  they  were  cut 
and  bruised  to  pieces.  In  this  manner  David  dealt  with  all 
the  cities  of  the  children  of  Ammon :  and  he  returned  with 
all  his  people  to  Jerusalem." 

With  the  text  thus  before  us  the  first  inquiry  is,  What 
mean  these  passages,  fairly  interpreted?  Do  they  mean 
merely,  as  the  margin  of  the  American  Revision  intimates, 
that  David  enslaved  his  captured  prisoners,  putting  them 
to  work  with  saws,  harrows  and  axes,  and  at  brick-making, 
or,  that  he  put  them  to  torture  by  sawing  them  asunder,  driv- 
ing over  them  with  iron-toothed  harrows,  mangling  them  in 
threshing  machines,  chopping  them  up  with  axes,  cooking 
them  alive  in  brick-kilns?  How  stand  the  commentators? 
Josephus,  adopting  the  torture  interpretation,  says,  "He  tor- 
mented them  and  destroyed  them." 

The  comment  in  the  Romanist  version  on  II  Sam  12:31 
is,  "Sawed" — Heb.,  "he  puts  them  under  saws  and  under 
rollers  of  iron,  and  under  knives,  etc."  The  Jews  say  that 
Isaiah  was  killed  by  being  sawed  asunder ;  to  which  punish- 
ment Paul  alludes,  Heb.  1 1 :37.  "Brick-kilns,  or  furnaces." 
Daniel  and  his  companions  were  thrown  into  the  fiery  fur- 
nace, Dan.  3:6-12,  Esth.  13:7.  Salien  blames  Joab  for 
what  seems  too  cruel.     But  though  he  was  barbarous  and 


200  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

vindictive,  v^e  need  not  condemn  him  on  this  occasion,  no 
more  than  his  master;  as  we  are  not  to  judge  of  former 
times  by  our  own  manners.  War  was  then  carried  on  with 
great  cruelty.  With  these  agree  substantially,  Kirkpatrick 
in  Cambridge  Bible,  Blakie  in  Expositor's  Bible,  "The 
Speakers'  Commentary,"  'The  Pulpit  Commentary,"  Jamie- 
son,  Faucett  &  Brown,  Geikie  and  many  others. 

On  the  contrary.  Murphy  on  I  Chron  20 : 3,  following  the 
idea  of  the  margin  in  American  Standard  Revision,  says, 
"As  saws,  harrows  or  threshing  drags,  and  axes  or  scythes, 
are  not  instruments  of  torture  or  execution,  it  is  obvious 
that  David  did  not  'cut'  them,  but  forced  or  'put'  them  to 
hard  labor  as  serfs  with  instruments  of  husbandry,  or  in  the 
making  of  bricks,  as  is  added  in  Samuel.  The  verb  ren- 
dered 'cut'  is  nowhere  else  used  in  this  sense,  but  in  that  of 
ruling,  and  therefore  employing  in  forced  labor."  Nor  does 
he  stand  alone.  Many  authorities  on  both  sides  might  be 
added.  But  these  are  sufficient  to  set  the  case  before  you. 
In  extenuation  of  the  "torture"  interpretation  the  following 
argument  may  be  considered :  David  was  under  the  Mosaic 
law.     That  law  bears  on  two  points : 

I.  The  law  of  war  for  captured  cities,  Deut.  20:10-14: 
"When  thou  drawest  nigh  unto  a  city  to  fight  against  it,  then 
proclaim  peace  unto  it.  And  it  shall  be,  if  it  make  thee 
answer  of  peace,  and  open  unto  thee,  then  it  shall  be,  that 
all  the  people  that  are  found  therein  shall  become  tributary 
unto  thee,  and  shall  serve  thee.  And  if  it  will  make  no 
peace  with  thee,  but  will  make  war  against  thee,  then  thou 
shalt  besiege  it:  and  when  Jehovah  thy  God  delivereth  it 
into  thy  hand,  thou  shalt  smite  every  male  thereof  with  the 
edge  of  the  sword:  but  the  women  and  the  little  ones,  and 
the  cattle,  and  all  that  is  in  the  city,  even  all  the  spoil 
thereof,  shalt  thou  take  for  a  prey  unto  thyself;  and  thou 
shalt  eat  the  spoil  of  thine  enemies,  which  Jehovah  hath 
given  thee.'* 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  201 

2.  The  lex-talionis,  or  law  of  retaliation,  i.  e.y  ^*An  eye 
for  an  eye,  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  etc."  Under  the  first  law  a 
city  carried  by  storm  was  devoted  to  destruction,  which 
custom  unfortunately  prevails  in  modern  wars.  Under  the 
second  law,  the  evils  practiced  on  others  were  requited  in 
kind.  See  case  of  Adoni-bezek,  Judges  i :  5-7.  Applying 
this  second  law,  the  cruel  things  done  by  David  to  the 
Ammonites,  under  the  ''torture"  interpretation  of  our  pas- 
sages, had  been  practiced  by  them  against  others  then  and 
later.  See  Amos  1:13.  They  caused  their  own  children 
to  pass  through  the  fire  to  Moloch,  hence  the  retaliation  of 
the  brick-kiln. 

The  weight  of  authority  seems  to  favor  the  "torture" 
interpretation,  and  yet  how  readily  does  a  humane  mind 
turn  in  preference  to  Murphy's  rendering.  If  this  "tor- 
ture" interpretation  be  true  (and  we  must  count  it  doubt- 
ful) then  we  need  not  cry  out  too  loud  in  horror  at  the  tor- 
ture of  prisoners  by  North  American  savages,  and  we  may 
rejoice  at  the  coming  of  One  who  in  His  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  gives  us  something  higher  and  better  than  the 
lex-talionis. 

In  the  case  of  the  Moabite  prisoners  made  to  He  prostrate 
and  measured  in  bulk  by  a  tape-line,  one  third  to  Hve  and 
two-thirds  to  die,  we  find  something  more  merciful  than  in 
the  case  of  the  Ammonites,  but  sufficiently  revolting  in  the 
wholesale  mathematical  method  of  selecting  the  living 
by  lot. 

The  black  and  white  beans  for  the  Mier  prisoners  impress 
more  favorably.  The  sum  of  the  truth  is  that  war  in  any 
age,  now  as  well  as  then,  "is  hell."  The  reconstruction 
measures  forced  on  the  conquered  South  after  the  war 
between  the  States  surpassed  in  the  bitterness  of  its  pro- 
longed anguish  all  the  quick  tortures  of  saw,  harrow,  axe 
and  brick-kiln  inflicted  on  the  Ammonites.  No  language 
can  describe  the  height,  depth,  length,  breadth  of  the  horrors 


203  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

of  reconstruction;  not  a  fleeting  agony  like  being  sawn 
asunder,  or  burnt  in  a  brick-kiln,  but  a  deliberate  harrow- 
ing of  the  South  back  and  forth  and  criss-crossing  for 
twenty-five  years,  every  tooth  in  the  harrow  red-hot,  until 
the  whole  harried  country  found  expression  for  its  hopeless 
woes  in  the  Lamentation  of  Jeremiah : 

"Is  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by? 

Behold,  and  see  if  there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sorrow?" 

There  was  no  measurement  of  the  prostrate  South  by 
tape-line,  sparing  a  part,  but  one  vast  humiliation  extending 
from  Virginia  to  Texas. 

And  if  Jehovah  sent  condign  punishment  on  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, the  wicked  axe  of  His  vengeance  for  the  spirit  with 
which  this  desolation  was  brought  on  sinning  Jerusalem  and 
the  self-complacency  of  the  deed,  so  will  He  yet  in  His  own 
way  visit  His  wrath  on  the  land  of  those  who  had  no  pity 
on  the  desolate  South. 

The  Jews  are  accustomed  to  excuse  David's  apparent 
ingratitude  for  Moab's  past  kindness  to  his  father  and 
mother,  and  his  seeming  disregard  of  the  ties  of  kindred 
through  Ruth,  on  the  score  that  Moab  murdered  his  parents 
when  trusted  to  their  hospitality.  Of  this  there  is  no  his- 
toric evidence.  A  better  reason  lies  in  the  fact  that  Moab 
joined  the  conspiracy  with  Ammon,  Syria  and  Edom  to 
destroy  David  and  his  kingdom. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Cite  the  passages  which  show  that  David's  wars  closed  in 
a  blaze  of  glory. 

2.  What  said  Cromwell  to  the  painter  of  his  portrait? 

3.  What  always  the  character  of  inspiration's  portrait-painting? 

4.  What  the  three  great  sins  that  darken  this  part  of  David's 


career 


5.  What   books    show   the   voluminous   homiletical    use   of    the 
first  and  greatest  sin? 

6.  What   Taylor's   outline? 

7.  What  Psalms,  in  order,  throw  the  greatest  light  on  his  heart 
experiences  of  this  sin? 

8.  What  the  precursors  of  this  sin,  preparing  for  his  fall? 


THREE  DARK  EVENTS  203 

9.  What  the  sin  itself  in  its  manifold  nature? 

10.  What   its  aggravations? 

11.  What  evidence  that  David's  sin  was  on  his  conscience  be- 
fore the  visit  of  Nathan? 

12.  What  four  things  impress  the  mind  in  Nathan's  words  to 
David? 

13.  What  may  you  say  of  David's  confession  of  sin? 

14.  What  the  two-fold  verdict  on  the  confession,  _  and  how 
does  it  explain  our  Lord's  saying  on  the  unpardonable  sin? 

15.  What  the  time  penalties  inflicted,  and  which  the  mildest? 

16.  In  what  ways  is  the  sincerity  of  David's  penitence  evi- 
denced ? 

17.  What  two  doctrines  in  David's  words  concerning  his  child, 
"He  shall  not  return  to  me  but  I  shall  go  to  him,"  and  what  the 
comfort   therefrom? 

18.  Concerning  the  evidence  of  sincere  repentance  in  Psalm 
51,  what  says  Carlyle? 

19.  How  did  it  affect  Voltaire? 

20.  What  Psalm  the  model  expression  of  the  happiness  of  the 
forgiveness,  and  how  does  Paul  use  it? 

21.  What  the  first  lesson  of  the  application  on  the  experience 
of  David  arising  from  this  sin? 

22.  What  the  second,  and  Virgil's  expression  of  it? 

23.  What  couplet  on  one  sin  provoking  another? 

24.  Cite  the  passage  from  Burns  on  the  hardening  power 
of  sin. 

25.  Cite  the  stanzas  on  "Thou  art  the  man,"  and  give  Edgar 
Allan  Poe's  use  of  the  phrase. 

26.  Cite  the  stanzas  on  the  reproach  of  Uriah. 

2T.    Cite  Keble's  lines  on  "The  Lord  hath  put  away  thy  sin." 

28.  What  the  two  interpretations  of  I  Sam.  12:31  and  I  Chron. 
20:3,  and  which  do  you  adopt? 

29.  What  scriptural  argument  may  be  made  in  extenuation  of 
the  "torture"  theory  of   interpretation? 

30  How  do  the  Jews  excuse  David's  treatment  of  the  Moabite 
captives,  and  what  the  better  reason? 


XX 


BRINGING  UP  THE  ARK  AND  THE  ESTABLISH- 
MENT OF  A  CENTRAL  PLACE  OF  WORSHIP 

Scriptures:  References  in  the  Harmony,  pp.  125-133 

THE  wars  are  now  all  over,  and  there  has  come  a 
period  of  rest.  The  first  thing  that  impresses 
David's  mind  is  this:  "I  have  made  Jerusalem  the 
capital  of  the  nation,  and  Mount  Zion  is  the  chief  place  in 
Jerusalem,  but  in  order  to  keep  this  people  unified,  God 
must  be  present.  Off  yonder  at  Gibeon  is  the  tabernacle 
and  the  brazen  altar,  a  part  of  the  people  worshiping  there, 
and  there  is  an  altar  of  sacrifice  but  no  altar  at  Jerusalem. 
Ten  miles  ofif  yonder  at  Kirjath-jearim  is  the  Ark;  it  has 
been  there  forty-eight  years.  Lost  in  the  days  of  Eli  to 
the  Philistines,  and  returned  by  the  Philistines  and  stopped 
at  that  place,  and  there  another  part  of  the  people  are  wor- 
shiping." You  can  see  how  David's  mind  would  be  fastened 
upon  the  thought  that  he  must  bring  that  Ark  with  its  sym- 
bol of  divine  presence  to  his  capital,  but  in  order  to  bring 
it  he  must  have  a  place  to  put  it,  so  he  selects  a  site  for  it 
and  builds  a  tent,  something  like  the  tabernacle  which 
Moses  built,  which  was  still  at  Gibeon,  and  it  remained 
there  until  Solomon  built  the  temple.  After  Solomon  built 
the  temple,  the  tabernacle  was  no  longer  regarded.  It 
passes  out  of  history. 

It  has  been  a  characteristic  of  this  man's  life  to  consult 
God  in  everything  that  he  does.  Now  the  priest  carried  two 
jewels  on  his  Ephod  called  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  and 

^4 


BRINGING  UP  THE  ARK  g05 

through  the  Urim  and  Thummim  God  answered  questions 
propounded.  That  Ephod  with  the  Urim  and  Thummim 
had  been  carried  by  Abiathar  to  David  in  the  cave  of 
Adullam.  All  along  through  Hfe  he  had  that  with  him,  and 
through  these  brilliant  jewels  in  some  way,  we  do  not  know 
just  how,  God  answered  questions  propounded.  There  was 
also  instituted  an  order  of  prophets  who  became  the  mouth- 
pieces of  Jehovah,  so  that  if  a  man  wanted  to  know 
Jehovah's  will  he  would  go  to  the  seer,  or  prophet,  as  David 
went  to  Nathan,  and  as  Saul  went  to  Samuel.  These  were 
two  ways  in  which  God  communicated  with  the  people — the 
priest  way,  through  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  and  the  pro- 
phet way,  through  their  inspiration.  It  is  the  object  of 
David  to  gather  together  at  Jerusalem  everything  sacred — 
the  Ark,  tent,  and  altar,  and  the  precious  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim, so  that  here  now  in  every  way  he  may  hear 
from  God. 

Sometimes  God  communicated  with  individuals  in  dreams 
and  visions,  but  ordinarily  through  the  two  ways  I  have 
pointed  out.  We  see  why  he  wanted  to  get  the  Ark  up 
there,  and  how  important  in  order  to  perpetuate  unity  and 
solidarity  of  his  kingdom;  all  who  would  confer  with  God 
must  come  to  his  capital. 

While  David  was  king  it  was  not  an  absolute  monarchy. 
There  was  what  was  called  the  Convocation  of  Israel — the 
general  assembly.  This  section  commences:  "And  David 
consulted  with  the  captains  of  thousands  and  of  hundreds, 
even  with  every  leader."  Notice  that  he  did  not  settle  mat- 
ters by  a  mere  ipse  dixit — "words  spoken  by  himself."  It 
was  not  by  mere  royal  edict.  He  wanted  the  people  to  see 
and  commit  themselves  to  it,  that  this  was  the  best  thing  to 
do  for  the  nation.  Sometimes  a  pastor  becomes  arbitrary 
in  deciding  what  to  do  when  he  could  accomplish  his 
object  a  great  deal  better  if  he  would  confer  with  his 
brethren.     David  was  not  just  a  boss ;  he  wanted  everybody 


W6  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

committed.     After  this  consultation  it  was  decided  that  they 
would  go  for  the  Ark,  and  our  text  tells  us  how  they  brought 
it  from  Kirjath-jearim  on  a  cart  drawn  by  oxen,  and  that 
when  the  oxen  stumbled  and  the  cart  looked  as  though  it 
was  going  to  turn  over,  Uzzah,  one  of  the  men  who  had 
been  guiding  it,  reached  out  his  hand  to  stop  it,  and  God 
struck  him  dead  instantly.     That  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  David  and  the  people — as  deep  as  when  Nadab  and 
Abihu  offered  strange  fire  upon  the  altar  and  the  lightning 
leaped  from  God  and  destroyed  them;  an  impression  as 
solemn  as  w^hen  at  Peter's  words  Ananias  and  Sapphira  fell 
dead  under  the   stroke  of  God.     The  question   is,   why? 
The  answer  is  found  in  the  Mosaic  law — that  while  carts 
might  be  used  to  carry  the  external  things,  the  posts  of  the 
enclosure,  and  the  curtain  of  the  enclosure,  the  things  of  the 
sanctuary  had  to  be  carried  by  men,  and  staves  were  fitted 
into  each  piece  heavy  enough  to  require  it  so  that  four  men 
might  carry  it.     They  might  put  the  other  things  in  a  cart, 
but  these  sacred  things  had  to  be  borne  by  men.     In  the  next 
place,  only  certain  men  could  touch  it  without  death.     They 
must  not  only  be  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  but  of  the  family  of 
Kohath.    In  Numbers  we  have  the  order  of  the  encampment 
of  the  twelve  tribes,  three  on  each  of  the  four  sides;  the 
Levites   made    an   inner   circle,    and   the   position    of    the 
Kohathites    and    their    duties.     Whenever    the    trumpet 
sounded  the  Kohathites  had  to  pick  up  the  Ark  and  carry  it. 
In  this  case  the  law  was  violated,  and  God,  in  order  to  show 
that  there  must  be  reverence  for  sacred  things,  and  that  His 
precise  commands  must  be  carried  out,  made  the  breach  on 
Uzzah. 

We  now  come  to  a  question  of  David,  and  it  is  a  great 
text—I  Chron.  13:12:  "How  shall  I  bring  the  Ark  of  God 
home  to  me  ?"  What  a  theme  for  a  sermon !  If  I  were  to 
preach  on  that  I  would  show  that  wherever  the  Ark  was 
there  was  safety  and  blessing.     After  it  stopped  at  Kirjath- 


BRINGING  UP  THE  ARK  207 

jearim  that  place  was  blessed ;  after  it  stopped  at  the  house 
of  Obed-Edom  that  home  was  blessed.  Since  that  Ark  was 
a  symbol  of  divine  presence  and  divine  guidance,  it  was  a 
supreme  question,  "How  shall  I  bring  the  Ark  of  God  home 
to  me?"  How  shall  I  get  the  Ark  of  God  into  my  family, 
so  that  there  will  be  safety,  guidance,  peace  and  love?  You 
see  what  kind  of  a  sermon  could  be  made  out  of  it. 

The  whole  vast  crowd  went  back  to  Jerusalem  and  left 
the  Ark  there.  It  was  a  good  thing  to  have,  but  a  bad  thing 
to  touch.  It  stayed  at  the  house  of  Obed-Edom  three 
months,  and  every  hour  it  brought  a  blessing  to  that  home. 
Our  text  tells  us  that  David  had  made  him  houses  in  the  city 
of  David  and  prepared  a  place  for  the  Ark,  if  he  could  ever 
get  it  there:  ''How  shall  I  bring  it  home  to  me?"  The 
house  that  David  built  for  himself  was  a  palace. 

The  riches  that  he  had  made,  the  commerce  that  he  had 
instituted,  culminated  in  a  treaty  with  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre. 
Tyre  was  the  great  naval  power  of  that  age — what  England 
is  now — and  through  his  alliance  with  Hiram  he  obtained 
the  best  artificers  in  wood  and  metal,  skilled  workmen,  and 
cedars  from  Lebanon.  These  huge  trees  were  floated  to 
Joppa,  and  from  Joppa  brought  across  the  country  to 
Jerusalem,  and  so  David  had  a  fine  house.  When  he  went 
into  that  house  the  day  it  was  finished,  he  wrote  a  song — 
the  30th  Psalm.  I  told  you  about  his  gratitude;  whenever 
a  blessing  came,  it  brought  immediately  from  him  an  expres- 
sion of  thanksgiving  to  God.  He  wrote  the  30th  Psalm  and 
sang  it  at  the  dedication  of  the  house.  He  dedicated  this 
house  of  his  to  God.     The  song  commences : 

"I  will  extol  thee,  O  Jehovah ;  for  thou  hast  raised  me  up, 
And  hast  not  made  my  foes  to  rejoice  over  me. 

0  Jehovah  my  God, 

1  cried  unto  thee,  and  thou  hast  healed  me. 

O  Jehovah,  thou  hast  brought  up  my  soul  from  sheol; 

Thou  hast  kept  me  alive,  that  I  should  not  go  down  to  the  pit." 


208  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

I  told  you  that  in  studying  the  Psalms,  you  would  get  the 
interpretation  of  the  inner  life  of  David,  and  that  you  could 
tell  from  the  Psalms  what  events  of  his  life  most  impressed 
him.  Arrange  the  Davidic  Psalms  in  order,  as  they  express 
the  life  of  David.  You  will  commence,  of  course,  with  the 
23rd,  then  the  8th,  etc.  There  was  a  great  difference 
between  the  Cave  of  Adullam  and  this  fine  palace.  Some 
people  do  not  get  a  home  until  late  in  life.  Lorenzo  Dow 
used  to  sing  that  he  never  had  a  home,  and  when  a  friend 
made  him  a  present  of  a  home,  he  declined  it  because  it  kept 
him  from  singing  his  favorite  hymn. 

David,  hearing  that  the  blessings  of  God  had  been  on 
Obed-Edom,  and  wanting  this  blessing  brought  to  Jeru- 
salem, studied  the  law,  and  the  law  told  him  how  to  handle 
the  Ark;  that  the  Kohathites  should  bear  it,  the  Levites 
only  should  come  near  it ;  so  he  set  out  again  with  a  vast 
host — nearly  a  thousand  singers — to  go  after  the  Ark. 

Three  chief  singers  led  with  cymbals,  then  three  more 
men  led  the  lute  or  psaltery-crowd,  and  three  more  men  led 
the  harp-crowd,  and  the  priests  blew  the  trumpets  for  sig- 
nals. On  page  127,  I  Chron.  15:19,  we  have:  "So  the 
singers,  Heman,  Asaph,  and  Ethan,  were  appointed,  with 
cymbals  of  brass  to  sound  aloud ;  and  Zechariah  and  Aziel, 
and  Shemiramoth  and  Jehiel,  and  Unni  and  Eliab,  and 
Maaseiah  and  Benaiah  with  psalteries  set  to  Alamoth." 
"Alamoth"  means  "female  choir;"  "Sheminith,"  "male 
choir."  He  started  out  to  get  the  Ark  home,  and  when  he 
got  to  the  place  they  sang  this  song,  the  15th  Psalm: 

"Jehovah,  who  shall  sojourn  in  thy  tabernacle? 

Who  shall  dwell  in  thy  holy  hill? 
He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  worketh  righteousness. 

And  speaketh  truth  in  his  heart; 
He  that  slandereth  not  with  his  tongue." 

Then  when  the  Kohathites  lifted  up  the  Ark,  he  said,  "Let 
God  arise,  and  His  enemies  be  scattered,"  the  song  that 


BRINGING  UP  THE  ARK  209 

Cromwell  sang  before  battle.  And  now  having  picked  up 
the  Ark,  the  priests  with  the  trumpets  gave  the  signals  to 
the  cymbal-band,  the  psaltery-band  whose  singers  were 
maidens,  and  to  the  harp-band.  When  that  vast  host  drew 
near  to  Jerusalem,  they  sang  the  24th  Psalm : 

"Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates, 
And  be  yet  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors." 

They  marched  in  and  deposited  the  Ark  in  its  place  in  the 
tent,  and  then  David  repeated  the  words  of  Moses :  "Return 
to  thy  rest,  O  Lord,"  then  followed  refreshments,  and  then 
followed  the  benediction. 

I  will  not  go  over  the  pageantry,  but  will  present  this 
thought:  The  Harmony  tells  us,  page  128,  "On  that  day 
David  first  ordained  to  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord,  by  the 
hand  of  Asaph  and  his  brethren."  In  other  words,  as  soon 
as  he  got  the  Ark  in  its  place,  he  instituted  that  remarkable 
worship  which  has  never  been  equalled  from  that  day  to 
this ;  there  was  something  every  day,  morning  sacrifice  and 
evening  sacrifice.  He  appointed  twenty-four  thousand 
Levites  to  various  services  around  the  sanctuary.  There 
were  twelve  different  bands,  twenty- four  pieces  each,  for 
each  month  of  the  year,  and  on  great  occasions  these  288 
pieces  would  be  in  one  grand  band  with  a  choir  of  4,000 
voices ;  but  every  month  of  the  year  a  certain  band  would 
know  that  it  would  have  to  go  in.  There  were  a  great  many 
singers,  male  and  female ;  singers  corresponding  to  cymbals, 
singers  corresponding  to  harps,  and  singers  corresponding 
to  cornets.  I  do  not  suppose  that  history  has  a  parallel  to 
this  organization  of  music.  It  became  somewhat  greater  in 
Solomon's  time,  but  David  was  the  organizer. 

We  now  come  to  one  of  the  most  important  lessons  in  the 
Bible,  page  131.  You  will  understand  that  Deut.  12: 10,11, 
is  the  key  passage  for  interpreting  the  present  section. 
Here  is  the  direction  that  after  they  get  over  into  the 


210  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

promised  land  and  their  enemies  are  subdued,  the  kingdom 
is  settled,  all  the  wars  ended,  then  God  will  designate  a 
central  place  of  worship  for  His  house.  David  was  familiar 
with  the  passage  in  Deuteronomy.  He  now  believes  that 
the  provisional  days  are  over,  and  that  the  time  has  come 
for  God  to  have  a  fixed  habitation  where  all  must  come,  in 
fulfillment  of  that  passage,  and  he  purposes  in  his  heart  to 
build  the  most  magnificent  house  for  God  that  the  world 
has  ever  seen,  H  Sam.  7: 1-3.  He  was  not  mistaken  in  the 
divine  purpose  to  have  a  central  place  of  worship;  he  was 
not  mistaken  that  Jerusalem  was  the  place,  but  he  was 
mistaken  as  to  the  time  when,  and  the  man  by  whom  this 
glorious  temple  of  God  should  be  erected.  It  is  im- 
portant for  you  to  see  wherein  he  was  mistaken  and  wherein 
he  was  not  mistaken.  God  commends  him  for  his  zeal : 
"It  was  well  that  thou  didst  purpose  this  in  thine 
heart."  *That  is  a  good  thing,  but  you  are  not  the  man 
to  do  it." 

The  Bible  assigns  two  reasons  why  David  was  not  the 
man.  In  I  Kings  5:3,  Solomon,  who  was  the  right  man, 
uses  this  language:  Thou  knowest  how  that  David,  my 
father,  could  not  build  a  house  for  the  name  of  Jehovah 
his  God  for  the  wars  which  were  about  him  on  every  side, 
until  Jehovah  put  these  under  the  soles  of  His  feet.  In 
other  words,  the  military  power  of  David  had  not  fully 
given  rest ;  the  time  of  rest  had  not  fully  come ;  a  partial  rest 
had  come,  but  not  the  full  rest  necessary  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  house.  Solomon  then  adds:  But  now 
Jehovah  my  God  hath  given  me  rest  on  every  side;  there 
is  neither  adversary  nor  evil  occurrence.  That  is  the  first 
reason. 

We  find  another  reason  in  I  Chronicles.  David  is  speak- 
ing: "But  God  said  unto  me.  Thou  shalt  not  build  a  house 
for  my  name,  because  thou  art  a  man  of  war,  and  hast  shed 
blood."     He  refers  to  it  again  as  follows:  "But  the  word 


BRINGING  UP  THE  ARK  Sll 

of  Jehovah  came  to  me  saying,  Thou  hast  shed  blood  abun- 
dantly, and  hast  made  great  wars :  thou  shalt  not  build  a 
house  unto  my  name,  because  thou  hast  shed  much  blood 
upon  the  earth  in  my  sight."  First  passage  I  Chron.  28 : 3  ; 
second  passage  I  Chron.  22  : 8. 

Now  go  back  to  the  passage  in  Deuteronomy :  "When  you 
have  gotten  over  into  that  country  and  have  obtained  rest 
from  all  your  enemies,  then  this  permanent  house  of  God 
shall  be  built."  David  mistook,  (i)  the  time — the  wars 
were  not  yet  ended;  (2)  the  person — he  had  been  a  man  of 
war  and  had  shed  blood  abundantly,  and  the  builder  of  the 
house  of  God  must  be  a  prince  of  peace.  We  will  have  use 
for  this  thought  when  we  come  to  consider  the  antitype. 
Whereupon  the  message  to  David,  the  message  of  our  text 
(and  I  want  you  to  see  that  this  divine  message  to  David 
made  the  deepest  impression  ever  made  upon  his  mind  by 
any  event  of  his  life),  made  a  stronger  impression  upon  the 
Jewish  mind  after  his  time  than  any  preceding  thing.  You 
will  find  the  Psalms  full  of  references  to  it,  and  the  prophets 
magnify  it  above  every  promise,  particularly  Isaiah,  Daniel 
and  Ezekiel,  and  you  will  find  that  this  message  that  Nathan, 
from  God,  delivered  to  David,  thrilled  the  Jewish  heart  with 
marvelous  expectation  of  the  Messiah,  David's  son,  the 
Great  King  that  was  to  come.  Frequent  reference  is  made 
to  it  in  the  New  Testament,  and  Matthew's  whole  gospel  was 
written  on  the  thought  of  the  coming  of  the  King.  This  is 
his  great  theme. 

In  order  to  see  how  this  impressed  David,  notice  the  exact 
words  spoken  to  him,  II  Sam.  7 : 4-7 :  ''And  it  came  to  pass 
the  same  night,  that  the  word  of  Jehovah  came  unto  Nathan, 
saying,  Go  and  tell  my  servant  David,  Thus  saith  Jehovah, 
Shalt  thou  build  me  a  house  for  me  to  dwell  in  ?  for  I  have 
not  dwelt  in  a  house  since  the  day  that  I  brought  up  the 
children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  even  unto  this  day,  but  have 
walked  in  a  tent  and  in  a  tabernacle.     In  all  places  wherein  I 


^n  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

have  walked  with  all  the  children  of  Israel,  spake  I  a  word 
with  any  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  whom  I  commanded  to  be 
shepherd  of  my  people  Israel,  saying.  Why  have  ye  not  built 
me  a  house  of  cedar?"  "During  the  period  of  the  judges, 
when  I  selected  a  judge  like  Samson,  or  Gideon,  or  Barak, 
did  I  at  any  time  say  to  any  of  these  judges  that  the  time 
had  come  to  build  me  a  permanent  house  ?"  (Read  II  Sam. 
7:8-16).  That  was  the  message  and  it  is  very  easy  to  see 
from  the  context  that  at  the  time  it  made  a  most  wonderful 
impression  upon  the  mind  of  David,  as  you  further  note 
from  his  prayer  following  right  after  it.  (Read  II  Sam. 
7:18,  19,  and  I  Chron.  17:16,  17).  Consider  particularly 
these  words:  "And  this  too  after  the  manner  of  men,  O 
Lord  Jehovah."  Luther  translates  that  passage  thus :  "This 
is  after  the  manner  of  a  man  who  is  God,  the  Lord."  That 
is  to  say,  such  a  promise  cannot  fulfil  itself  in  a  man  of 
low  degree.  The  Chronicles  passage  has  it:  "Thou  hast 
regarded  me  according  to  the  estate  of  a  man  of  high 
degree."  David  does  not  understand  that  his  son  Solomon 
is  to  exhaust  the  meaning  of  this  passage. 

In  order  to  prove  the  impression  made  on  David's  mind, 
let  us  read  all  of  Psalm  yz  which  closes  with  the  words  of 
David,  and  ends  a  book  of  the  Psalms.  The  subscription 
is:  "The  prayers  of  David,  the  son  of  Jesse,  are  ended." 
You  may  easily  gather  from  this  Psalm  that  when  this 
promise  was  made  through  Nathan  that  God  would  build 
him  a  house — house  meaning  family — except  the  Lord 
build  a  house,  they  labor  in  vain  to  build  it,  since  children 
are  a  heritage  of  the  Lord.  The  King  in  his  mind  appears 
from  Psalm  2.  (Read  Psalm  2:1-8.)  Then  again  in 
Psalm  no  "The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  at  my 
right  hand  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool."  This 
king  is  to  be  a  priest  according  to  the  order  of  Melchizedek. 
Then  in  Psalm  89.  (Read  89:2-4.)  Notice  again  in  Psalm 
45.     (Read  the  entire  Psalm.)     Now  we  want  to  know  how 


BRINGING  UP  THE  ARK  213 

this  promise  to  David  impressed  the  mind  of  the  prophet. 
(Read  Isaiah  ii :  i-io.) 

The  genealogies  of  both  Matthew  and  Luke  prove  that 
Jesus  w^as  a  descendant  of  David.  (Read  Luke  1:31-33 
and  68-70.) 

Another  passage  (Read  Hebrews  1:5).  ''Again"  here 
refers  to  Christ's  resurrection.  His  soul  had  gone  up  to 
God  at  His  death  on  the  cross  to  make  atonement,  and  after 
the  atonement  returned  for  the  body,  and  when  the  resurrec- 
tion took  place  God  said,  ''Let  all  the  angels  of  God  worship 
Him."  Again,  in  Hebrews,  he  says  that  Moses  built  a 
house,  the  tabernacle,  and  Solomon,  the  lineal  son  of  David, 
built  a  house,  the  temple.  But  the  temple  that  Solomon 
built  was  out  of  unfeeling  rock,  unthinking  stone,  quarried 
as  rough  ashlars  from  the  mountains ;  then  by  certain  proc- 
esses smoothed  and  fashioned  into  things  of  beauty,  to  be 
fitted  into  the  earthly  temple  of  the  Lord,  which  is  a  type  of 
human  being,  quarried  as  rough  ashlars  from  the  mountains 
of  sin ;  then  by  marvelous  works  of  regeneration  and  sanc- 
tification,  they  become  smooth  ashlars  ready  for  fitting  into 
the  temple  of  God,  the  living  temple,  to  be  a  habitation  for 
God,  through  the  Spirit,  at  the  end  of  the  world.  See  also 
the  last  chapter  of  Revelation. 

My  point  is,  that  while  this  promise  of  God  through 
Nathan  rested  for  the  time  being  on  Solomon,  who  did 
build  a  house,  that  it  looked  to  a  higher  than  Solomon,  to  a 
more  distant  day.  Let  us  read  Luther's  translation  again : 
'This  is  after  the  manner  of  a  man  who  is  God,  our  Lord." 
When  you  study  the  vast  literature  of  the  Old  Testament — 
say  such  a  series  as  Hengstenberg's  "Christology"  or 
Hengstenberg's  "Kingdom  of  God,"  or  any  good  commen- 
tary on  II  Sam.  7  and  parallel  passages  in  Chronicles,  you 
will  find  that  they  regard  this  promise  made  to  David  as  the 
most  remarkable  ever  made.  The  prophetic  light  grew 
brighter  all  the  time.     Way  back  yonder  the  seed  of  the 


^14  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

woman,  Abel,  then  Seth,  Shem,  Abram,  Isaac,  Jacob 

David,  but  here  the  Messianic  light  becomes  most  brilliant  in 
this  promise. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  general  conditions  of  affairs  at  this  point,  and 
what  prompted  David  to  bring  up  the  Ark   from  Kirjath-jearim? 

2.  In  what  three  ways  did  God  communicate  with  His  people, 
and  the  bearing  of  these  on  the  removal  of  the  Ark  and  Taber- 
nacle to  Jerusalem? 

3.  What  course  did  David  pursue,  and  the  lesson  therefrom, 
what^  incident  here  shows  the  sanctity  of  the  Ark  and  the  im- 
pression made  by  it,   and  what  Mosaic  law   was  violated  here? 

4.  What  text  here  for  a  sermon,  and  the  line  of  thought  sug- 
gested ? 

5.  Give  an  account  of  the  building  and  dedication  of  David's 
house. 

6.  What  course  did  David  pursue  before  attempting  again  to 
bring  up  the  Ark? 

7.  Describe  the  procession  that  went  after  the  Ark.  What 
Psalm  did  they  sing  as  they  started? 

8.  What  did  David  say  when  the  Kohathites  lifted  up  the  Ark, 
and  what  general   sang  it  before   battle? 

9.  What  song  did  they  sing  as  they  approached  Jerusalem,  and 
what  did  David  say  when  they  deposited  the  Ark  in  the  tent? 

10.  Describe  the   course   of   worship   instituted   by   David. 

11.  Cite  the  direction  for  the  establishment  of  the  central  place 
of  worship;  what  David's  purpose  concerning  it;  wherein  was 
he  not  mistaken,  and  wherein  was  he  mistaken? 

12.  Why  was  not  David  the  man  to  build  the  temple? 

13.  What  message  brought  to  David  by  Nathan,  what  impression 
did  it  make  on  his  own  mind,  on  the  Jewish  mind,  and  what  O.  T. 
and  N.  T.  references  to  it? 

14.  What  Luther's  translation  of,  "And  this  too  after  the  man- 
ner of  men,  O  Lord  Jehovah,"  and  what  its  meaning? 

15.  What  the  impression  made  on  David's  mind,  and  what  the 
proof  ? 

16.  How  did  this  promise  to  David  impress  the  mind  of 
Isaiah? 

17.  Who  was  the  immediate  fulfillment  oj^  this  promise  to 
David,  who  the  remote  fulfillment,  and  what  the  N.  T.  proof? 


XXI 

DAVID'S  KINDNESS  TOWARDS  JONATHAN'S 

SON;  BIRTH  OF  SOLOMON;  FAMILY 

TROUBLES ;  THE  THREE  YEARS 

OF  FAMINE 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  133,  134,  138 

OUR  present  discussion  commences  on  page  133, 
II  Sam.  9 : 1-13,  David's  kindness  toward  Jonathan's 
son,  Mephibosheth. 
When  Jonathan's  child  was  five  years  old,  there  came  to 
his  mother's  home  an  account  of  the  death  of  the  father  on 
the  battlefield  of  Gilboa,  and  as  the  nurse  that  carried  him 
was  frightened  and  ran  with  the  five  year  old  child,  she 
stumbled  and  fell,  or  let  the  child  fall,  and  it  crippled  him 
for  life.  Jonathan  had  acquired  a  very  considerable  estate. 
The  subsequent  history  referring  to  Mephibosheth  will 
appear  in  a  later  chapter.  David's  kindness  to  Mephibosheth 
will  give  us  the  conclusion  of  the  history.  It  certainly  is  a 
touching  thing  that  in  this  connection  David  remembers  the 
strong  tie  of  friendship  between  him  and  Jonathan,  and 
upon  making  inquiry  if  there  be  any  left  of  Jonathan's 
house,  he  finds  that  there  is  one  child,  this  crippled  son,  and 
he  appoints  Ziba,  a  great  rascal,  by  the  way,  as  we  learn 
later,  to  be  the  steward  of  the  estate,  the  rents  of  the  estate  to 
be  paid  to  Mephibosheth,  and  Mephibosheth  to  eat  at  the 
king's  table.  The  closing  paragraph,  verse  13,  "So 
Mephibosheth  dwelt  in  Jerusalem ;  for  he  did  eat  continually 
at  the  king's  table;  and  he  was  lame  on  both  his  feet." 
Spurgeon  takes  this  for  a  text,  and  preaches  a  remarkable 

215 


216  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

sermon  on  it.  He  makes  it  in  a  sense  illustrate  the  imper- 
fect saint,  the  lame  feet  representing  the  imperfection,  con- 
tinually feasting  at  the  table  of  his  king.  That  is  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  spiritualizes  it,  and  by  which  he  illustrates 
the  great  privilege  of  a  saint  to  eat  continually  at  the  table 
of  his  Lord,  to  sup  with  Him  and  be  with  Him. 

The  next  point  is  the  birth  of  Solomon,  the  fourth  son  of 
Bathsheba.  He  received  two  names :  *'Solomon,"  which 
means  ''peace,"  and  ''J^^i^i^h,"  w^hich  means  the  Lord's 
"beloved,"  and  an  announcement  was  made  by  the  prophet 
that  this  child  should  be  the  successor  of  David. 

The  next  paragraph  tells  about  the  family  of  David,  and 
has  an  important  bearing  upon  the  subsequent  history  of 
Absalom.  Let  us  give  special  attention  to  this  record  of 
David's  family.  We  have  names  in  the  Bible  of  seven  of 
his  wives.  There  were  others  not  named.  We  have  the 
names  of  nineteen  sons  and  one  daughter.  They  were  the 
children  of  his  regular  wives.  He  had  a  good  many  other 
daughters  not  named.  Then  he  had  a  number  of  children 
by  his  concubines.  So  we  have  the  names  of  seven  wives 
and  twenty  children.  There  were  more  wives  and  more 
children,  but  these  are  enough.  I  suppose  he  did  not  have 
names  enough  to  go  around. 

As  introductory  to  the  next  chapter,  which  is  on  Absalom, 
note  that  four  of  these  sons  became  very  important  in  the 
history.  Amnon,  the  first  son,  and  the  son  of  his  first  wife, 
Ahinoam,  will  figure  in  the  Absalom  chapter.  The  third 
was  Absalom,  but  his  mother  was  Maacah,  the  daughter  of 
Talmai,  king  of  Geshur.  Geshur  is  located  in  the  hills  of 
Bashan.  These  people  were  left  there  contrary  to  the 
divine  law ;  that  is  the  law  first  violated.  God  told  them  not 
to  permit  any  Canaanites  to  remain  in  the  Promised  Land, 
but  we  learn  in  Joshua  13:13  that  the  Geshurites  were 
allowed  to  remain.  Another  law  was,  as  you  learned  from 
Deut.  7,  that  the  Israelitish  people  should  not  marry  into 


DAVID  AND  MEPHIBOSHETH  217 

these  tribes.  David  violated  that  law  by  marrying  the 
daughter  of  the  king  of  Geshur,  So  there  are  two  viola- 
tions of  the  law  in  connection  with  Absalom.  Absalom  was 
half  Geshurite  and  half  Israelite.  The  next  son  of  any  par- 
ticular note  was  the  fourth  son,  Adonijah.  We  come  to  him 
later.  His  mother  was  still  a  different  woman,  about  whom 
we  do  not  know  anything  in  particular.  The  next  son  in 
the  history  is  Solomon,  the  tenth  son.  The  first  son  of 
importance  in  the  history  is  Amnon;  second  important  in 
history  (third  son)  Absalom ;  third  son  important  in  history 
by  a  different  mother  is  Adonijah ;  and  the  fourth  important 
son  (the  tenth  son)  Solomon.  The  law  in  Deuteronomy 
says  that  if  they  should  select  a  king,  he  should  not  multiply 
wives;  there  is  the  third  law  violated.  So,  in  going  back 
to  the  past  violations  of  the  law  of  God,  the  evils  of  polyg- 
amy are  manifest  in  David's  history.  There  would  neces- 
sarily be  jealousies  on  the  part  of  the  various  mothers  in 
their  aspirations  for  their  sons.  It  is  said  that  every  crow 
thinks  its  nestling  is  the  whitest  bird  in  the  world,  and 
every  mother  thinks  her  child  is  E  Pluribus  Unum.  She  is 
very  ambitious  for  him,  and  she  looks  with  a  jealous  eye 
upon  any  possible  rival  of  her  child.  These  four  sons — 
Amnon,  Absalom,  Adonijah  and  Solomon,  all  illustrate  the 
evils  of  polygamy. 

Yet  another  law  was  violated.  Kings  now  make  mar- 
riages for  State  reasons ;  for  instance,  the  prince  of  England 
will  be  contracted  in  marriage  to  some  princess  of  France, 
or  a  princess  of  England  contracted  in  marriage  to  a  prince 
of  Spain,  Hke  PhiHp  11.  Through  these  State  marriages 
some  of  the  greatest  evils  that  have  ever  been  known  came 
upon  the  world,  and  some  of  the  greatest  wars.  When 
David  married  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  Geshur,  there 
was  a  political  reason  for  it ;  he  wanted  to  strengthen  him- 
self against  Saul,  and  that  gave  him  an  ally  right  on  the 
border  of  the  territory  held  by  Saul.     We  will  find  Solomon 


218  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

making  these  political  marriages,  marrying  the  daughter  of 
the  king  of  Egypt,  for  instance.  That  is  the  fourth  law 
violated,  all  in  connection  with  Absalom.  I  name  one  other 
law,  a  law  which  included  the  king  and  every  other  father, 
that  his  children  should  be  disciplined  and  brought  up  in  the 
fear  and  admonition  of  God.  That  Eli  did  not  do,  and 
David  did  not  do.  The  violation  of  that  law  appears  in  the 
case  of  Absalom. 

In  running  comment  on  our  text  we  next  consider  from 
page  138  National  Calamities,  II  Sam.  21:1:  *'And  there 
was  a  famine  in  the  days  of  David  three  years,  year  after 
year;  and  David  sought  the  face  of  the  Lord."  In  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy,  Moses  in  his  farewell  address  sets  before 
the  people  so  clearly  that  they  could  not  possibly  misunder- 
stand, that  famines  and  pestilences  are  God's  messengers  of 
chastisement;  that  if  they  kept  God's  law  they  should  be 
blessed  in  basket  and  store,  but  if  they  sinned  He  would 
make  the  heavens  brass  above  and  the  earth  iron  beneath. 

This  famine  resulted  from  a  drought.  When  the 
drought  first  commenced,  no  particular  attention  was  paid 
to  it,  except  that  everybody  knew  that  it  meant  hard  times. 
The  second  year  came  and  still  no  rain,  no  crops,  no  grass, 
and  it  began  to  be  a  very  serious  matter.  When  the  third 
year  came,  it  became  awful,  and  men  began  to  ask  what  was 
the  cause  of  it,  and  they  remembered  God's  law  that  when 
they  sinned  against  Him,  He  would  send  famine  and  pesti- 
lence upon  them.  David  determines  to  find  out  the  cause, 
so  he  goes  before  the  Lord  and  asks  Him  the  reason  of  this 
terrible  chastisement  on  the  land,  and  the  answer  is  given 
in  our  text:  "And  the  Lord  said,  It  is  for  Saul,  and  his 
bloody  house,  because  he  put  to  death  the  Gibeonites." 

Let  us  look  at  that  case  of  Saul.  Saul  was  king  of  Israel ; 
David  had  been  anointed  to  succeed  him,  and  there  was 
sharp  jealousy  between  David  and  Saul,  particularly  upon 
Saul's  part,  and  he  was  seeking  methods  to  strengthen  him- 


DAVID  AND  MEPHIBOSHETH  219 

self.  One  thing  that  a  king  needs,  or  thinks  that  he  needs, 
in  order  to  strengthen  himself  with  his  adherents,  is  to  have 
places  to  give  them — fat  offices,  estates  to  bequeath  to  them. 
Saul,  being  a  poor  man  himself,  looks  around  to  see  how  he 
can  fill  his  treasury  and  reward  his  followers,  particularly 
the  Benjamites,  and  right  there  in  the  tribe  of  Benjamin 
live  the  Gibeonites.  After  the  fall  of  Jericho,  one  of  the 
Canaanitish  tribes  determined  to  escape  destruction  by 
strategy.  So  they  sent  messengers  to  Joshua  in  old  travel- 
worn  clothes,  with  old  bread  in  their  haversacks,  as  if  they 
had  been  a  long  time  on  their  journey.  They  met  Joshua 
and  proposed  to  make  a  covenant  with  him,  and  he,  judging 
from  their  appearance  and  from  the  rations  they  carried, 
supposed  that  they  must  have  come  a  long  way  and  were, 
therefore,  not  people  of  that  country,  entered  into  a  solemn 
covenant  with  them.  They  thus  fooled  him  and  the  princes 
of  Israel  swore  an  oath  before  God  that  they  would  main- 
tain their  covenant  with  the  Gibeonites.  Very  soon  the 
fraud  practiced  was  found  out,  and  while  they  could  not,  for 
their  oath's  sake,  kill  these  people,  they  made  them  "hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water" — in  other  words,  servants. 
They  let  them  remain  in  the  land  in  that  servile  position,  a 
kind  of  peonage  state.  These  Gibeonites  had  been  living 
there,  holding  their  land,  yet  servants  of  the  people  for 
about  400  years,  uncomplainingly  submitting  to  their  posi- 
tion, but  on  account  of  the  oath  made  by  Joshua,  retaining 
their  possessions. 

Saul,  as  I  said,  looked  around  to  find  resources  of  reve- 
nue and  said  to  himself,  ''Suppose  we  kill  these  Gibeon- 
ites and  take  what  they  have."  And  he  and  his  sons,  ''the 
bloody  house  of  Saul,"  made  an  attack  upon  these  people 
and  took  everything  that  they  had  in  the  world  and  divided 
it  up  among  the  Benjamites.  Saul  afterwards  boasted  of  it. 
He  said,  "What  has  David  to  offer  you,  and  who  will  give 
you  estates,  as  I  have  given  you  estates?"    This  act  upon 


no  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

his  part,  (and  his  family  assisted  him  in  it,)  was  unpro- 
voked, cold-blooded,  murderous  and  confiscatory,  with  ref- 
erence to  their  property,  upon  a  people  that  had  been  faith- 
ful as  servants  for  400  years.  And  even  up  to  this  time  in 
David's  reign  these  people  were  yet  deprived  of  any  redress. 

God  did  not  overlook  that  wrong.  He  holds  communities 
responsible  for  community  sins,  nations  responsible  for 
national  sins,  and  just  as  He  sent  a  plague  upon  the  children 
of  Israel  on  account  of  Achan,  so  He  sent  this  famine  upon 
Israel,  because  in  the  night-time  this  poor,  poverty-stricken 
people,  who  had  been  defrauded  of  home  and  property  and 
almost  destroyed  by  the  ^'bloody  house  of  Saul,''  prayed 
unto  God.  God  hears  such  cries.  Whenever  a  great 
national  injustice  is  done,  as  Pharaoh  did  to  the  Israelites  in 
Egypt,  retribution  follows,  and  as  the  Spaniards  did  to  the 
Indian  tribes  whom  they  subjugated,  particularly  in  Cuba, 
there  came  a  day  when  the  thunder  of  American  guns  in 
Santiago  avenged  upon  Spain  the  wrongs  that  Cuba  had 
borne  for  400  years.  "There  is  no  handwriting  in  the  sky 
that  this  people  is  guilty  of  a  great  inhumanity  or  national 
wrong,  and  therefore  I  will  send  a  pestilence,"  and  He  sends 
it  and  leaves  them  to  inquire  the  cause. 

He  sent  this  famine,  and  the  third  year  men  began  to 
inquire  as  to  its  cause,  and  God  answered  by  pointing  out 
this  sin.  If  that  is  the  cause  this  nation  must  remain  under 
the  scorching  fire  of  that  drought  until  expiation  is  in 
some  way  made  for  that  sin.  David  sent  for  the  remnants 
of  the  Gibeonites  and  acknowledged  that  this  wrong  had 
been  done  to  them,  and  that  they,  as  remnants  of  the  multi- 
tude that  had  been  slain  by  Saul,  had  a  right  to  blood 
revenge ;  so  David  said  to  them,  "I  will  do  what  you  say  to 
right  this  wrong."  They  said  the  children  of  the  man  that 
did  this  shall  die ;  he  himself  is  out  of  the  way,  but  they  are 
living.  "  The  bloody  house  of  Saul,'  seven  of  them,  must 
be  given  up  to  be  put  to  death  as  we  think  fit  and  where  we 


DAVID  AND  MEPHIBOSHETH  221 

think  fit,  so  that  compensation  may  be  made.  They  must 
be  gibbeted,  crucified,  and  they  must  remain  there  in  Gibeah, 
Saul's  home,  and  the  scene  of  the  crime  that  he  committed ; 
they  must  remain  there  until  the  offense  is  expiated." 

David  declined  to  let  any  of  Jonathan's  sons  help  pay  that 
penalty.  He  exempted  Mephibosheth,  who  was  eating  con- 
tinually at  his  table,  and  who,  doubtless,  judging  from  the 
character  of  Jonathan,  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  grievous 
crime.  He  selected  two  sons  of  Saul's  concubine,  Rizpah. 
She  was  a  very  beautiful  woman,  and  after  Saul's  death 
there  came  very  near  being  a  civil  war  about  her.  She 
occasioned  disturbances  between  Abner  and  Ish-bosheth,  who 
was  then  king.  She  had  two  sons,  one  named  Mephibosheth, 
the  younger  one,  and  the  older  one,  Armoni.  Her  two  sons 
and  the  five  sons  of  Merab  (not  Michal,  as  the  text  has  it) 
were  taken  by  the  Gibeonites  to  Gibeah,  Saul's  home,  put  to 
death  and  then  gibbeted,  after  they  had  been  put  to  death 
by  crucifixion,  or  put  to  death  and  then  crucified.  "Cursed 
is  every  one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree.''  This  execution 
occurred  about  the  time  of  the  passover,  and  the  bodies  had 
to  hang  there  until  it  was  evident  that  God  has  removed  the 
penalty.  The  rain  did  not  come  until  October,  about  the 
time  of  the  last  feast,  so  these  bodies  hung  there  six  solid 
months.  Rizpah  took  her  shawl,  or  cloak,  and  made  a  kind 
of  a  booth  out  of  it,  and  resting  under  it,  she  stayed  there 
six  months  and  kept  off  carrion  birds  and  beasts  of  prey 
from  these  bodies — two  of  them  her  children — all  day  and 
all  night  long — in  her  mother  love,  wishing  that  the  curse 
could  be  lifted  from  the  bones  of  her  children ;  wishing  that 
the  disgrace  could  be  removed ;  wishing  that  they  might  be 
taken  down  and  have  an  honorable  sepulture.  Six  months 
after  she  took  that  position  it  rained,  the  drought  was 
broken,  the  famine  stopped,  and  the  sin  was  appeased. 
David  heard  how  this  mother  had  remained  there  and  it 
touched  his  heart.     He  had  the  bodies  taken  down  and  also 


222  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

had  the  bones  of  Saul  and  Jonathan  brought  from  Jabesh- 
gilead,  and  accorded  to  all  an  honorable  burial. 

What  this  woman  did  has  impressed  itself  upon  the 
imagination  of  all  readers  of  the  Bible.  The  undying 
strength  of  a  mother's  love!  It  impressed  itself  upon  the 
mind  of  an  artist,  and  a  marvelous  picture  was  made  of  this 
woman  fighting  off  the  carrion  birds  and  jackals.  It 
appealed  to  the  poet,  and  more  than  one  poem  has  been 
written  to  commemorate  the  quenchless  love  of  this  mother. 
A  mother's  love  suggested  by  the  case  of  Rizpah  is  found  in 
an  unpublished  poem  by  N.  P.  Willis.  He  represents  the 
famine  as  so  intense  that  the  oldest  son  snatches  a  piece  of 
bread  from  a  soldier's  hand  and  takes  it  to  his  mother,  and 
the  youngest  son  is  represented  as  selling  his  fine  Arab  horse 
for  a  crust  of  bread  and  bringing  it  to  his  mother.  When 
I  was  a  schoolboy  at  old  Independence,  our  literary  club  had 
a  regulation  that  every  member  should  memorize  at  least 
one  couplet  of  poetry  every  day  and  recite  it.  I  memorized 
a  great  many.     I  remember  my  first  two.     The  first  one  was 

'The  man  that  dares  traduce  because  he  can 
With  safety  to  himself  is  not  a  man." 

The  second  one  was 

"In  all  this  cold  and  hollow  world 

There  is  no  fount  of  strong,  and  deep,  and  deathless  love 
Save  that  within  a  mother's  heart." 

Dore,  who  illustrated  "Paradise  Lost,"  Dante's  "Inferno" 
and  the  Bible,  was  a  wonderful  artist.  He  had  45,000  spe- 
cial sketches  and  paintings.  Perhaps  in  the  Dore  gallery  of 
Bible  illustrations  this  picture  appears.  The  artist  puts  in 
his  picture  seven  crosses ;  on  one  a  carrion  bird  has  alighted, 
and  others  are  coming,  and  peeping  out  of  the  rocks  are  the 
jackals  gathering  to  devour  these  bodies,  and  there  is  Rizpah 
frightening  away  the  birds  and  jackals.  It  is  a  marvelous 
picture. 


DAVID  AND  MEPHIBOSHETH  223 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Rehearse  the  story  of  Mephibosheth,  and  David's  kindness  to 
him.     Who  preached  a  sermon  on  II  Sam,  9:13? 

2.  What  great  king  was  born  just  at  this  time,  what  his  names, 
and  the  meaning  of  each? 

3.  How  many  wives  had  David,  and  how  many  children? 

4.  What  four  sons  of  David  became  important  in  history,  what 
five  violations,  in  connection  with  Absalom,  of  the  law  of  Moses, 
and  what  the  evils  of  polygamy  in  David's  case? 

5.  What  national  calamity  just  now,  its  cause,  and  how  ascer- 
tained ? 

6.  Rehearse  the  story  of  the  Gibeonites. 

7.  What  principle  of  God's  judgments  here  set  forth? 

8.  How  was  this  offense  expiated? 

9.  Who  were  exempted,  and  why? 

10.  How  did  Rizpah  show  her  mother-love  in  this  case,  and  its 
impress  upon  the  world? 


XXII 

THE  SIN  OF  NUMBERING  THE  CHILDREN  OF 

ISRAEL,  ITS  PENALTY  AND  THE 

HISTORY  OF  ABSALOM 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  138-141,  134-137 

ON  PAGE  138  of  the  Harmony  preserved  in  both 
II  Samuel  and  Chronicles,  is  an  account  of  another 
great  affliction  from  God,  and  this  affliction  took  the 
form  of  a  pestilence  in  which  70,000  people  perished.  In 
one  account  it  is  said  that  the  Lord  moved  David  to  number 
Israel,  in  the  other  that  Satan  instigated  it.  God  is  some- 
times said  to  do  things  that  He  permits.  There  was  a 
spirit  of  sinfulness  in  both  the  nation  and  king,  on  account 
of  the  great  prosperity  of  the  nation.  Some  preachers  hold- 
ing protracted  meetings,  and  some  pastors  in  giving  their 
church  roll,  manifest  a  great  desire  to  put  stress  upon  num- 
bers. So  David  ordered  a  census  taken  of  the  people.  We 
search  both  these  accounts  in  vain  to  find  the  law  of  the 
census  carried  out,  that  whenever  a  census  was  taken  a 
certain  sum  of  money  from  each  one  whose  census  was 
taken  was  to  be  put  into  the  sanctuary.  It  was  not  wrong 
to  take  a  census,  because  God  himself  ordered  a  census  in 
Numbers.  The  sin  was  in  the  motive  which  prompted 
David  to  number  Israel  on  this  occasion.  Satan  was  at  his 
old  trick  of  trying  to  turn  the  people  against  God,  that  God 
might  smite  the  people.  Oftentimes  when  we  do  things, 
the  devil  is  back  of  the  motive  which  prompts  us  to  do  them. 
It  is  a  strange  thing  that  the  spirit  of  man  can  receive  direct 
impact  from  another  spirit. 

224 


HISTORY  OF  ABSALOM  225 

It  is  also  a  strange  thing  that  a  man  so  secular-minded  as 
Joab,  understood  the  evil  of  this  thing  better  than  David. 
Joab  worked  at  taking  this  census  for  nearly  ten  months, 
but  did  not  complete  it ;  he  did  not  take  the  census  of  Levi 
or  Benjamin.  Chronicles  gives  the  result  in  round  num- 
bers, which  does  not  exactly  harmonize  with  II  Samuel,  one 
attempting  to  give  only  round  numbers.  Both  show  a  great 
increase  in  population.  After  the  thing  was  done,  David's 
conscience  smote  him,  he  felt  that  here  were  both  error  and 
sin ;  and  he  prayed  about  it,  and  when  he  prayed,  God  sent 
him  a  message,  making  this  proposition :  "I  offer  thee  three 
things"  (try  and  put  yourself  in  David's  place  and  see  which 
of  these  three  things  you  would  have  accepted)  :  (i)  ''Shall 
seven  years  of  famine  come  unto  thee  in  thy  land?"  He 
had  just  passed  through  three  years  of  famine,  and  did  not 
want  to  see  another,  especially  one  twice  as  long  as  the 
other.  (2)  "Or  wilt  thou  flee  three  months  before  thy  foes, 
while  they  pursue  thee?"  He  rejected  that  because  it  put 
him  at  the  mercy  of  man.  (3)  The  last  alternative  was, 
"Or  shall  there  be  three  days'  pestilence  in  thy  land  ?"  And 
David  made  a  remarkable  answer :  "Let  us  fall  now  into  the 
hands  of  the  Lord,  for  His  mercies  are  great;  and  let  me 
not  fall  into  the  hands  of  man."  I  would  myself  always 
prefer  that  God  be  the  one  to  smite  me  rather  than  man. 
"Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes  countless  millions 
mourn."  It  is  astonishing  how  cruel  man  can  be  to  man 
and  woman  to  woman,  especially  woman  to  woman. 
Always  prefer  God's  punishment ;  He  loves  you  better  than 
anyone  else,  and  will  not  put  on  you  more  than  is  just ;  but 
when  the  human  gets  into  the  judgment  seat,  there  is  no 
telling  what  may  happen.  Before  this  three  days'  pestilence 
had  ended  70,000  people  had  died.  The  pestilence  was  now 
moving  upon  the  capital,  and  David  was  going  to  offer  a 
sacrifice  to  God  and  implore  His  mercy.  When  he  saw  the 
angel  of  death  with  his  drawn  sword,  about  to  swoop  down 


^26  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

upon  Jerusalem,  then  comes  out  the  magnanimity  of  David : 
"ho,  I  have  sinned  and  I  have  done  perversely;  but  these 
sheep,  what  have  they  done  ?"  Who  greater  than  David  used 
similar  language  in  order  to  protect  his  flock?  Our  Lord 
in  Gethsemane.  Thereupon  God  ordered  a  sacrifice  to  be 
made,  its  object  being  to  placate  God,  to  stay  the  plague,  a 
glorious  type  of  the  ultimate  atonement. 

When  I  was  a  student  at  Independence,  the  convention 
met  there,  and  Dr.  Bayless,  then  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist 
church  at  Waco,  took  this  text:  *Tf  any  man  love  not  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  Anathema  Maranatha."  He 
commenced :  ''When  the  flaming  sword  of  divine  justice  was 
flashing  in  the  sunbeams  of  heaven,  and  whistling  in  its 
fiery  wrath,  Jesus  interposed  and  bared  His  breast,  saying, 
'Smite  me  instead.' "  Bayless  was  a  very  eloquent  preacher. 
But  though  our  Lord  interposed,  yet  on  Him,  crushed  with 
imputed  sin,  that  sword  was  about  to  fall.  His  shrinking 
humanity  prayed,  "Save  me  from  the  sword!"  But  the 
Father  answered,  "Awake,  O  Sword,  smite  the  shepherd 
and  let  the  flock  be  scattered."     And  here  we  find  the  type. 

The  threshing  floor  of  Araunah  became  the  site  of 
Solomon's  temple.  It  was  the  place  where  Abraham  brought 
his  son,  and  bound  him  on  an  altar,  and  Hfted  up  the  knife 
when  the  voice  of  God  called:  "Abraham,  stay  thy  hand, 
God  himself  hath  provided  a  sacrifice."  There  Abraham 
started  to  offer  Isaac ;  there  the  temple  was  afterward  built, 
and  the  brazen  altar  erected  on  which  these  sacrificial  types 
were  slain.  I  ask  you  not  only  to  notice  David's  vicarious 
expiation,  but  also  the  spirit  of  David  as  set  forth  in  verse 
24,  page  141 :  "Neither  will  I  offer  burnt  offerings  unto  the 
Lord  my  God,  which  cost  me  nothing."  That  old  Canaanite 
man  was  a  generous  fellow,  and  offered  to  give  him  that 
place  for  such  a  purpose  and  to  furnish  the  oxen  for  the 
sacrifice,  but  David  refused  to  make  an  offering  that  cost 
him  nothing.     Brother  Truett  preaches  a  great  sermon  on 


HISTORY  OF  ABSALOM  227 

that  subject:  "God  forbid  that  I  should  offer  an  offering 
unto  the  Lord  that  costs  me  nothing."  When  he  wants  to 
get  a  really  sacrificial  collection ;  wants  people  to  give  until 
it  hurts,  he  takes  that  text  and  preaches  his  sermon.  We 
must  not  select  for  God  that  which  costs  us  nothing.  I  will 
not  say  tens  or  hundreds,  but  I  will  say  thousands  of  times 
in  my  life  I  have  made  such  offerings  where  it  cost  me 
something — where  it  really  hurt. 

History  of  Absalom. — In  the  last  discussion  it  was  shown 
that  there  had  been  a  number  of  antecedent  sins  in  connec- 
tion with  Absalom :  ( i )  It  was  a  sin  that  the  Geshurites  had 
been  left  in  the  land;  (2)  It  was  a  sin  that  David  had  mar- 
ried a  Geshurite;  (3)  That  he  had  married  for  State  rea- 
sons; (4)  That  he  had  multipHed  wives;  (5)  That  he  did 
not  instruct  and  discipline  Absalom.  Absalom  stands  among 
the  most  remarkable  characters  of  the  O.  T.  He  was 
the  handsomest  man  in  his  day,  according  to  the  record. 
He  was  perfect  in  physical  symmetry  and  body.  That 
counts  a  good  deal  with  many  people,  but  here  it  is  not  a 
case  of  "pretty  is  that  pretty  does."  He  had  outside  beau- 
ties to  a  marvelous  degree.  In  that  poem  of  N.  P.  Willis, 
he  assumes  that  Absalom's  body  is  before  David  in  the 
shroud,  and  says  that  as  the  shroud  settled  upon  the  body 
it  revealed  in  outline  the  matchless  symmetry  of  Absalom. 
Absalom  had  remarkable  courage;  there  is  nothing  in  the 
history  to  indicate  that  he  was  ever  afraid  of  anything  or 
anybody.  Again,  he  had  great  decision  of  character;  he 
knew  exactly  what  he  wanted ;  he  was  utterly  unscrupulous 
as  to  the  means  to  secure  it.  However,  he  was  a  man  of 
most  remarkable  patience;  he  had  passions  and  hate,  and 
yet  he  could  hold  his  peace  and  wait  years  to  strike.  That 
shows  that  he  was  not  impulsive;  that  he  could  keep  his 
passions  under  the  most  rigid  control.  The  idea  of  a  young 
man  like  Absalom  under  such  an  indignity  waiting  two  years 
and  then  carefully  planning  and  bringing  his  victims  under 


gas  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

his  hand  and  smiting  them  without  mercy !  That  is  malice 
aforethought.  He  alone  could  make  Joab  bend  to  him ;  he 
sent  for  Joab,  but  Joab  did  not  come;  then  he  sent  to  his 
servant  saying,  "Set  fire  to  Joab's  barley  field."  That 
brought  him !  Spurgeon  has  a  sermon  on  that.  You  know 
that  a  terrapin  will  not  crawl  when  you  are  looking  at  him 
unless  you  put  a  coal  of  fire  on  his  back.  Absalom  put  a 
coal  of  fire  on  Joab's  back.  Then,  to  show  the  character 
of  the  man,  he  could  get  up  early  in  the  morning  and  go  to 
the  gate  of  the  city  and  listen  to  every  grievance  in  the 
nation,  pat  each  fellow  on  the  back  and  whisper  in  his 
ear,  "Oh,  if  I  were  judge  in  Israel  your  wrong  would  be 
righted !"  There  is  your  politician.  Now  for  a  man  to  keep 
that  up  for  years  indicates  a  fixedness  of  purpose,  absolute 
control  over  his  manner.  Whoever  supposes  Absalom  to 
have  been  a  weak-minded  man  is  mistaken.  Whoever  sup- 
poses him  to  have  been  a  religious  man  is  mistaken.  He 
had  not  a  spark  of  religion. 

David's  oldest  son,  Amnon,  commits  the  awful  ofifense  set 
forth  in  the  first  paragraph  of  this  section.  Words  cannot 
describe  the  villainy  of  it,  and  if  Absalom  under  the  hot  in- 
dignation of  the  moment  had  smitten  Amnon,  he  would  have 
been  acquitted  by  any  jury.  But  that  was  not  Absalom's 
method.  He  intended  to  hit  and  hit  to  kill,  but  he  was  going 
to  take  his  time,  and  let  it  be  as  sudden  as  death  itself  when 
it  came.  David  refrains  from  punishing  Amnon.  Under 
the  Jewish  law  he  could  have  been  put  to  death  at  once,  and 
he  ought  to  have  been,  but  David  could  not  administer  the 
law ;  seeing  his  own  guilt  in  a  similar  case,  stripped  him  of 
the  moral  power  to  execute  the  law. 

You  will  find  that  whenever  yo\i  do  wrong,  it  will  make 
you  more  silent  in  your  condemnation  of  wrong  in  others. 

We  now  come  to  a  subject  that  has  been  the  theme  of  my 
own  preaching  a  good  deal :  "Now  Joab,  the  son  of  Zeruiah, 
perceived  that  the  king's  heart  was  toward  Absalom,"  but  he 


HISTORY  OF  ABSALOM  229 

also  perceived  that  that  affection  was  taking  no  steps  to 
bring  about  a  reconcihation,  so  he  falls  upon  a  plan.  He 
sent  a  wise  woman  of  Tekoa  to  find  David,  feigning  a  griev- 
ance as  set  forth  here,  who  among  other  things  said,  *'We 
must  needs  die,  and  are  as  water  spilt  on  the  ground,  which 
cannot  be  gathered  up  again,''  i.e.,  from  one  against  whom 
our  anger  is  extended,  but  in  behalf  of  whom  we  are  inter- 
ceding. The  fact  that  God  had  not  killed  him  was  proof 
that  He  was  sparing  him  that  he  might  repent.  "But  God 
deviseth  means  whereby  His  banished  shall  not  be  perpet- 
ually expelled."  The  application  intended  is  this:  "Now 
David,  you  are  doing  just  the  other  way.  You  have  only  a 
short  time  to  live,  and  when  you  die  your  opportunities  of 
reconciliation  are  gone  forever.  Imitate  God ;  devise  means 
to  bring  your  banished  one  home."  David  acted  on  this 
advice  and  sent  Joab  after  Absalom,  but  he  did  not  imitate 
God  fully;  he  had  Absalom  brought  to  Jerusalem,  but  would 
not  see  him.  Absalom  waited  there  under  a  cloud  for  three 
years,  and  when  he  could  stand  it  no  longer,  by  burning 
Joab's  barley  field  he  forced  him  to  bring  about  a  reconcilia- 
tion. Absalom's  object  in  bringing  about  this  reconciliation 
was  to  put  him  in  position  to  rebel.  He  knew  that  the  tenth 
son,  Solomon,  was  announced  as  the  successor  to  Davd,  and 
he  was  the  older  son,  and  under  the  ordinary  laws  of  primo- 
geniture entitled  to  the  kingdom.  So  he  determines  to  be 
king. 

David  at  this  time,  as  we  learn  from  Psalm  41,  was  labor- 
ing under  an  awful  and  loathsome  sickness — a  sickness  that 
separated  him  from  his  family,  from  his  children  and  from 
his  friends.  This  caused  him  to  be  forgotten  to  a  great 
extent.  It  was  a  case  of  "when  you  drop  out  of  sight,  you 
drop  out  of  mind."  While  the  people  saw  nothing  of  David, 
they  were  seeing  much  of  Absalom ;  he  had  his  chariot  and 
followers,  and  paraded  the  streets  every  day,  and  his  ad- 
mirers would  say,  "There  is  a  king  for  you!    We  want  a 


^30  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

king  that  is  somebody  !'*  David  in  retirement,  Absalom  con- 
spicuous, making  promises  and  being  the  oldest  son,  cap- 
tured the  hearts  of  the  people.  Among  these  was  Ahitho- 
phel.  Then  Absalom  sent  spies  out  all  over  the  country  and 
said,  "When  you  hear  the  trumpet  blow,  you  may  know  that 
Absalom  is  reigning."  He  went  down  to  Hebron  and  an- 
nounced himself  as  king.  When  the  word  is  brought  to 
David  that  the  people  have  gone  from  him,  there  seems  to  be 
no  thought  in  his  mind  of  resistance;  he  prepares  to  leave 
the  city,  leave  the  Ark  of  God  and  the  house  of  God.  Leav- 
ing his  concubines  and  taking  his  wives  and  children  with 
him,  he  sets  out,  and  upon  reaching  Mt.  Olivet,  looks  back 
upon  the  abandoned  city,  and  weeps.  A  great  number  of  the 
Psalms  were  composed  to  commemorate  his  feelings  during 
this  flight.  Both  priests,  Abiathar  and  Zadok,  wanted  to 
take  the  Ark  with  them,  but  David  sent  them  back,  saying 
he  wanted  some  there  to  watch  for  him  and  send  him  word. 
Never  in  the  annals  of  time  do  we  find  a  more  Hvely  his- 
toric portraiture  of  men  and  events  than  here.  Each  lives 
before  us  as  we  read:  "Ittai,  Abiathar,  Zadok,  Hushai,  Ziba, 
Shimei  and  Abishai.'* 


QUESTIONS 

1.  How  do  you  harmonize   II   Sam.  24:1   and  I   Chron,  21:1? 

2.  What  the  sin  of  this  numbering  of   Israel? 

3.  What  the  lessons  to  preachers? 

4.  What  was  David's  course? 

5.  What  God's  proposition  to  David? 

6.  What  David's  answer,  and  reason  for  his  choice? 

7.  How  was  the  plague  finally  stayed? 

8.  What  type  here,  and  the  N.  T.  fulfillment? 

9.  What  the  site  of  Solomon's  temple? 

ID.    What  historic  events  connected   with  this  place? 

11.  What  great  text  for  a  sermon  here,  and  who  has  preached 
a  noted   sermon   from   it? 

12.  Rehearse    here    the    antecedent    sins     in    connection    with 
Absalom  ? 

13.  What  his  physical  appearance? 

14.  Analyze   his   character. 


HISTORY  OF  ABSALOM  2S1 

15.  What  the  lesson  to  preachers  from  the  sin  of  Amnon  and 
David's   attitude   toward    it? 

16.  What  the  lesson  for  David  from  the  woman  of  Tekoa? 

17.  How   did   David  receive   it? 

18.  To  what  expedient  did  Absalom  resort,  and  why? 

19.  What  David's  disadvantage  and  Absalom's  advantage  here? 

20.  What  David's   course  when  he  saw  that  the  hearts  of  the 
people  had  turned  toward  Absalom? 

21.  What  the  nature  of  this  part  of  the  history? 


XXIII 

DEATH  OF  ABSALOM ;  PREPARATION  FOR  SOL- 
OMON'S ACCESSION  AND  THE  BUILDING 
OF  THE  TEMPLE 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  141,  142,  148-163 

WE  should  continually  bear  in  mind  that  in  order  to 
interpret  the  inner  life  of  David,  the  Davidic 
Psalms  must  be  studied  in  connection  with  the  his- 
tory. I  never  got  a  true  insight  into  the  character  of  this 
man,  into  his  religious  life,  into  his  staying  powers,  until  I 
studied  the  history  very  carefully  in  connection  with  the 
Psalms.  I  spent  one  whole  summer  studying  the  history 
of  David  in  the  Psalms. 

David  stopped  at  Mahanaim ;  that  is  the  place  where  Jacob 
met  the  angelic  host,  as  the  name  signifies.  While  Absa- 
lom was  making  his  muster,  David  was  also  mustering  a 
host ;  while  Absalom  was  godless  and  prayerless,  David  was 
penitent  for  his  sins,  humble  toward  God,  and  courageous 
toward  men.  Absalom  appointed  as  his  commander-in- 
chief  a  nephew  of  David,  a  son  of  Abigail;  David  had  for 
his  commanders  Joab,  Joab's  brother  Abishai,  and  the  Git- 
tite,  Ittai. 

One  of  the  most  touching  things  in  connection  with 
David's  stay  at  Mahanaim  is  the  coming  together  from  three 
different  directions  of  three  friends  to  help:  "Shobi  the  son 
of  Nahash  of  Rabbah  of  the  children  of  Ammon,  and 
Machir  the  son  of  Ammiel  of  Lo-debar,  and  Barzillai  the 
Gileadite  of  Rogelim,  brought  beds,  basins,  and  earthen  ves- 
sels, and  wheat,  and  barley,  and  meal,  and  parched  corn, 

S32 


DEATH  OF  ABSALOM  233 

and  beans,  and  lentils,  and  parched  pulse,  and  honey,  and 
butter,  and  sheep,  and  cheese  of  kine,  for  David,  and  for  the 
people  that  were  with  him,  to  eat."  It  is  noticeable  always, 
however,  that  a  man  of  strong  character  will  draw  to  him 
friends  whose  friendship  cannot  be  broken.  David's  charac- 
ter developed  friendship  so  that  people  would  come  to  him 
and  stand  by  him  to  the  very  last  extremity.  Of  course 
there  were  some  traitors.  Absalom  could  draw  men  to  him, 
but  could  not  hold  them. 

The  battle  between  the  opposing  armies  took  place  in  what 
is  called  the  "Wood  of  Ephraim,"  a  very  considerable  forest 
somewhere  near  the  banks  of  the  Jordan.  David's  army 
was  in  three  divisions.  He  wanted  to  lead  in  person,  but 
they  objected  and  he  stayed  over  the  gate  of  the  city,  with 
one  concern  in  his  heart,  deeper  than  all  others,  and  that 
was  about  the  fate  of  his  son,  Absalom ;  he  was  very  much 
devoted  to  him,  foolishly  so,  as  the  charge  that  he  gave  to 
each  officer  as  each  division  marched  through  the  gate  indi- 
cates :  'Tor  my  sake  deal  gently  with  Absalom."  Absalom's 
army  was  utterly  routed. 

I  remember  preaching  a  sermon  in  1887,  when  canvassing 
the  state  for  prohibition,  on  the  text:  "Do  thyself  no 
harm,"  basing  my  argument  upon  this  thought,  that  no  man 
can  cause  a  harm  that  he  does  to  terminate  in  himself.  A 
man  might  be  somewhat  excused  for  doing  harm  to  himself, 
if  he  harms  only  himself.  I  illustrated  Absalom's  harming 
himself  in  two  scenes.  First,  on  that  battlefield  20,000  men 
lay  dead ;  a  man  goes  over  the  field  and  tries  to  identify  the 
slain.  He  turns  over  a  victim  whose  face  is  to  the  ground, 
and  feels  in  his  pockets  to  see  if  he  can  find  anything  to 
identify  him,  and  perhaps  finds  a  letter  from  his  wife  stained 
with  his  heart's  blood.  It  reads:  "When  are  you  coming 
home?  The  children  every  evening  sit  out  on  the  gatepost 
and  look  toward  the  scene  of  war  until  their  eyes  fill  with 
tears,  then  come  in  and  say,  'Mamma,  whenever  is  papa 


234  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

coming  home?'"  Never!  There  are  20,000  men  like  him, 
20,000  wives  Hke  that  wife,  and  40,000  children  like  those 
children,  all  harmed  because  Absalom  did  harm  to  himself ! 
The  other  scene  of  the  picture  was  the  old  man,  the  father, 
at  the  gate  of  the  city,  listening  for  news  of  the  battle,  and 
when  the  message  is  received,  colder  than  lead  and  sharper 
than  the  dagger,  it  strikes  his  heart.  Stripping  off  the  crown 
and  purple  robe,  he  wraps  himself  in  sackcloth,  and  puts 
ashes  on  his  gray  head.  It  breaks  his  heart.  He  wrings  his 
hands  and  sobs:  ^'O  my  son  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son 
Absalom !  would  God  that  I  had  died  for  thee,  O  Absalom, 
my  son,  my  son !"  In  view  of  the  father's  unspeakable  grief, 
it  was  not  right  for  that  young  man  to  harm  himself,  since 
the  harm  did  not  terminate  in  him. 

That  sermon  changed  more  votes  than  all  the  speeches 
that  had  been  made.  Power  in  preaching  consists  in  having 
an  imagination  that  will  enable  you  to  make  a  scene  live 
before  you. 

I  preached  another  sermon  in  Waco  that  I  think  I  shall 
never  forget.  It  was  an  afternoon  sermon,  when  all  the 
churches  in  the  city  were  united.  I  took  a  double  text :  "I 
shall  go  to  him,  but  he  shall  not  return  to  me."  That  was 
the  first  part  of  the  text.  The  other  part  was,  "Absalom, 
my  son,  my  son,  would  God  that  I  had  died  for  thee."  I  con- 
trasted the  sorrow  of  David  over  his  two  children ;  the  sep- 
aration between  him  and  his  baby  was  temporary;  they 
would  soon  be  together  forever,  but  the  separation  from 
Absalom  was  an  eternal  separation.  He  knew  his  child  was 
lost  forever,  which  accounts  for  his  inconsolable  grief.  The 
power  of  that  sermon  was  in  vivid  stress  of  two  things: 
holding  one  picture  up  and  saying,  "Look  at  that,"  and 
holding  up  the  opposite  picture  and  saying,  "Look  at  that." 

The  rebellion  perished  with  the  death  of  Absalom,  but 
David  was  so  utterly  overwhelmed  with  his  grief  that  he 
did  not  follow  up  his  victory,  and  really  he  became  sinful 


DEATH  OF  ABSALOM  235 

in  his  grief.  It  took  the  heart  out  of  his  own  people.  They 
became  ashamed  and  sneaked  back  to  town,  f eeHng  that  their 
victory  was  dreadful  to  their  king.  Joab,  though  his  heart 
was  as  hard  as  iron,  was  right  in  his  rebuke ;  but  it  was  very 
unfeelingly  done,  especially  as  he  had  been  the  one,  in  viola- 
tion of  orders,  to  take  the  life  of  Absalom.  This  is  what 
he  said,  "Thou  hast  shamed  this  day  the  faces  of  all  thy 
servants,  which  this  day  have  saved  thy  life,  and  the  lives 
of  thy  sons  and  thy  daughters,  and  the  lives  of  thy  wives, 
and  the  lives  of  thy  concubines ;  in  that  thou  lovest  them 
that  hate  thee,  and  hatest  them  that  love  thee.  For  thou  hast 
declared  this  day,  that  princes  and  servants  are  naught  unto 
thee :  for  this  day  I  perceive,  if  Absalom  had  lived,  and  all 
we  had  died  this  day,  then  it  had  pleased  thee  well.  Now 
therefore  arise,  go  forth,  and  speak  comfortably  unto  thy 
servants;  for  I  swear  by  the  Lord,  if  thou  go  not  forth, 
there  will  not  tarry  a  man  with  thee  this  night."  That  was 
pretty  straight  talk,  but  it  was  successful,  and  it  waked 
David  up.  He  was  so  stunned  by  his  grief  that  he  took  no 
steps  to  follow  up  his  victory. 

The  question  of  his  restoration  came  up  with  the  people 
this  way :  "Shall  we  now  take  the  king  back  to  his  throne  ? 
Absalom  is  dead  and  there  is  no  other  king."  And  then 
David  made  overtures  to  Judah,  his  own  tribe ;  he  sent  to 
Zadok  and  Abiathar,  the  priests,  saying  that  the  tribe  of 
Judah  was  his  own  flesh  and  blood,  and  they  had  said  noth- 
ing about  his  coming  back.  He  then  made  this  promise: 
"As  the  Lord  God  liveth  I  will  make  Amasa,  Absalom's 
general,  commander-in-chief  of  my  armies."  It  would  have 
been  all  right  to  dismiss  Joab,  but  it  certainly  was  impoHtic 
to  put  a  rebellious  general  at  the  head  of  his  army.  We  will 
see  directly  that  it  cost  Amasa  his  life. 

The  men  who  stood  by  David  and  won  his  victory  for 
him  felt  like  they  were  strangers  here  with  these  people  who 
had  been  against  him  and  the  enemies'  general  made  their 


236  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

commander.  Whenever  a  strong  feeling  of  resentment  ex- 
ists there  will  always  be  somebody  to  give  voice  to  it,  hence 
the  shout  of  Sheba:  *To  your  tents,  O  Israel!"  You  will 
hear  that  cry  again  in  the  days  of  Rehoboam,  when  the  same 
ten  tribes  say,  'To  your  tents,  O  Israel !  What  have  we  in 
the  son  of  Jesse?"  The  tribes  were  always  loosely  held  to- 
gether, and  it  was  easy  for  them  to  separate  and  disinte- 
grate. For  some  reason,  not  stated,  Amasa  was  very  dila- 
tory to  take  command  and  subdue  Sheba,  and  David  com- 
mands Abishai,  not  Joab,  to  take  command  and  pursue 
Sheba  until  he  is  caught  and  destroyed.  Joab  goes  along 
as  a  volunteer,  and  on  the  way  he  meets  Amasa  whom  he 
thus  addressed:  '*Art  thou  in  health,  my  brother?"  And 
then  stabs  him  under  the  fifth  rib,  just  as  he  had  killed 
Abner ;  then  he  usurps  command,  Abishai  giving  way  to  him, 
and  put  down  the  rebellion  very  speedily.  David  did  not 
feel  strong  enough  to  displace  him  again,  so  after  that  Joab 
was  commander-in-chief,  too  big  a  man  to  be  put  out! 

In  going  back  to  Jerusalem  there  were  several  touching 
things :  In  the  first  place  that  cursing  man,  Shimei,  comes 
out  and  makes  submission  and  asks  to  be  forgiven.  David 
forgives  him  for  the  present.  You  will  see  later  how  he 
made  provision  for  bringing  him  to  judgment,  but  he  for- 
gave him  for  the  present.  The  darkest  blot  on  David,  out- 
side of  the  sin  against  Uriah,  is  in  this  paragraph,  the  meet- 
ing with  Mephibosheth.  Mephibosheth  comes  to  meet  him 
and  David  sternly  asks  why  he  had  not  gone  out  with  him 
when  he  left  Jerusalem.  He  gently  explains  that  he  was 
crippled  and  could  not  walk,  and  that  he  ordered  his  beast 
to  be  saddled  and  his  servants  went  off  and  left  him ;  that 
he  is  now  glad  to  welcome  David  back,  and  that  it  was  a 
falsehood  that  he  ever  intended  to  profit  by  David's  mis- 
fortunes. David  then  restores  to  him  part  of  his  property, 
and  lets  that  rascal  Ziba  keep  half  of  it.  In  all  this  transac- 
tion Mephibosheth  comes  out  in  a  much  more  favorable 


DEATH  OF  ABSALOM  237 

light  than  David :  ''Let  him  take  it  all  forasmuch  as  my 
lord,  the  king,  has  come  in  peace  unto  his  own  house." 
This  does  not  show  off  David  very  well.  It  is  customary  for 
everybody  in  going  over  this  part  of  the  history,  to  speak 
with  great  favor  of  old  Barzillai.  Everything  he  did  was 
pure  disinterestedness.  David  offers  compensation,  offers 
to  give  him  a  permanent  home  in  Jerusalem.  He  says  this 
would  not  be  a  favor  to  him,  as  he  is  old  and  blind  and  can- 
not taste  anything  or  discriminate.  Then  David  asks  him 
if  there  is  not  somebody  in  his  house  that  he  can  promote, 
and  the  son  of  old  Barzillai  is  promoted. 

We  will  now  consider  the  preparation  David  made  for  the 
succession  to  guard  against  any  other  rebellion.  He  wanted 
the  succession  established  in  his  life-time.  If  you  are 
familiar  with  English  history  you  know  that  a  nation  is  in 
a  great  stir  every  time  its  king  gets  sick,  unless  it  is  clearly 
established  who  shall  succeed  him.  The  question  for  suc- 
cession was  a  serious  one  when  Queen  Elizabeth  died,  and 
again  at  Queen  Anne's  death,  when  the  kingdom  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  house  of  Hanover.  Some  of  the  most  thrill- 
ing pages  in  history  are  devoted  to  these  transition  periods. 
David  wanted  no  trouble  about  the  succession;  so  he  as- 
sembled the  great  convocation,  consisting  of  princes,  cap- 
tains of  thousands,  and  hundreds,  etc.,  and  caused  them  to 
recognize  Solomon  as  his  successor,  and  he  was  so  an- 
nounced. Every  officer  in  the  kingdom  was  pre-committed 
to  Solomon.  And  yet,  notwithstanding  this  precaution, 
Adonijah,  the  third  son  prominent  in  history,  now  the  old- 
est, since  Absalom  is  dead,  determined  that  he  should  be 
king.  He  adopted  Absalom's  expedients,  prepared  chariots 
and  men  to  run  before  him.  He  got  Abiathar,  one  of  the 
priests,  and  Joab  to  stand  with  him  and  went  off  to  a  palace 
called  En-rogel  and  there  to  be  announced  as  king.  David 
was  too  old  and  feeble  to  do  anything,  but  the  prophet  Na- 
than sent  the  mother  of  Solomon  to  him  to  let  him  know 


238  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

what  was  impending.  David  took  steps  instantly  to  have 
Solomon  crowned  king,  and  proclamation  made.  Adonijah, 
when  he  heard  that  Solomon  was  king,  returned  to  Jerusalem 
and  begged  for  mercy,  and  the  rebellion  was  ended.  This 
led  to  the  displacement  of  Abiathar  as  priest,  and  led  to  the 
permanency  of  the  high  priest  in  the  line  of  Zadok,  who 
stood  firmly  with  David. 

The  crowning  act  of  David's  life,  the  one  most  profitable 
in  its  lesson  to  us,  was  his  provision  for  the  erection  of  the 
great  temple.  All  the  devoted  treasure  from  Saul's  wars 
and  his  own,  all  the  spoils  of  many  nations  subdued  by  him, 
immense  treasures  of  gold,  silver,  precious  stones,  precious 
metal,  and  cloth  were  stored  up  for  this  purpose.  Then  by 
revelation  from  God  the  plans  and  specifications  of  the 
building  and  its  furniture  received  by  him  were  given  to 
Solomon,  accompanied  by  a  solemn  charge  to  build  the 
house.  But  yet  the  gathered  material  was  not  sufficient  for 
so  great  an  enterprise.  So  David  at  this  great  convocation 
engineered  the  most  remarkable  public  collection  known  to 
history — the  most  remarkable  in  its  method,  its  principles, 
and  in  the  amount  raised. 

Method:  First  of  all  he,  himself,  out  of  his  own  proper 
fund,  made  a  cash  donation  never  equalled  since,  not  even 
by  Carnegie  nor  Rockefeller.  The  princes,  and  then  all  sub- 
ordinate officers,  followed  the  lead  of  their  rulers. 

Principles:  (i)  It  was  a  "prepared"  donation.  (2)  The 
preparation  was  "with  all  his  might."  (3)  The  donation 
was  for  God's  house  and  cause.  (4)  It  was  prompted  by 
"affection  for  God's  cause."  (5)  It  was  purely  voluntary. 
(6)  It  was  preceded  by  a  "willing  consecration  of  himself 
to  God."  (7)  It  was  followed  by  great  joy  because  a  willing 
and  not  an  extorted  offering. 

Amount:  It  staggers  credulity  to  accept  the  vast  total. 
The  total,  by  any  fair  method  of  calculation,  goes  beyond 
anything  else  known  to  history.    No  off-hand,  impulsive  col- 


DEATH  OF  ABSALOM  2S9 

lection  could  have  produced  such  a  result.  It  was  a  long- 
purposed,  thoroughly  prepared  contribution  flowing  from 
the  highest  possible  motives. 

Lesson:  Our  preachers  today  should  lay  it  to  heart.  We 
need  the  lesson  particularly  in  times  of  financial  stringency. 
We  see  our  preachers  scared  to  death  without  cause,  and 
our  people  demoralized.  We  need  the  application  intensely. 
We  should  know  that  God  is  never  straightened  in  himself — 
that  today,  if  we  willingly  consecrate  ourselves  to  God  first 
of  all,  like  the  Phillipians  who  first  gave  themselves  to  the 
Lord,  and  if  we  have  true  afifection  for  God's  cause,  and  if 
we  purpose  great  things  in  our  hearts,  and  prepare  a  collec- 
tion, with  all  our  might  appealing  to  the  voluntary  prin- 
ciple in  the  loving  hearts  of  God's  people,  and  ourselves  have 
strong  faith  in  God  who  is  able  even  to  raise  the  dead,  then 
the  stringency  of  the  times  will  only  brace  us  and  call  out 
our  courage.  But  if  we  are  whipped  inside,  if  we  feel  that 
we  are  butting  our  heads  against  a  stone  wall,  if  we  take 
counsel  with  our  fears  and  become  timid  and  hesitating 
moral  cowards  when  we  should  be  heroes,  of  course  we  will 
miserably  fail.  We  will  become  grasshoppers  in  the  sight 
of  opposing  giants,  and  grasshoppers  in  our  own  sight.  Hard 
times,  difficult  situations,  are  methods  of  providence  to  pre- 
pare us.  They  are  touchstones  of  character,  revealing  who 
are  weaklings  and  who  are  heroes.  Go  off  to  thyself ;  shut 
out  the  world.  Shut  up  thyself  alone  with  God,  fight  the 
battle  to  a  finish  once  for  all  in  thine  own  heart,  and  then 
with  the  sublime  audacity  of  faith,  do  thy  work  for  the 
Lord. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  Contrast  Absalom   and   David   as   to   character. 

2.  Who   were   chosen    as    commanders    by   Absalom   and    David 
respectively? 

3.  What    the   touching   incident   at    Mahanaim? 

4.  Give   an   account   of   the   battle    between   David's   army   and 
Absalom's. 


240  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

5.  How   did   David  show  his   concern    for  Absalom? 

6.  Show  in  two  ways  how  Absalom  in  harming  himself,  harmed 
others. 

7.  Contrast  David's  sorrow  upon  the  death  of  his   infant  with 
that  upon  the  death  of  Absalom. 

8.  How   did  the  rebellion   end? 

9.  Give   Joab's   rebuke,   and  its   effect  on    David. 

ID.  How  was  David  restored  as  king  of  the  people? 

11.  What  his   mistake,   and  its   result? 

12.  What  touching  events  on   David's  return  to  Jerusalem? 

13.  What  preparation  did   David   make   for  a  successor? 

14.  Who  at  once  became  competitor  for  the  kingship? 

15.  What  his  method? 

16.  How  did  this  episode  end? 

17.  What  the  crowning  act  of  David's  life? 

18.  How    was   the   provision   made? 

19.  What   the   method? 

20.  What  the  principles? 

21.  What  the  amount? 

22.  What  the  lesson,  and  its  application? 


XXIV 

THE  ARMY;  CIVIL  ORGANIZATION;   INTERNA- 
TIONAL COMMERCE;  RELIGIOUS 
ORGANIZATION 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  142-148 

THE  scriptural  materials  for  the  life  of  David  present 
him  as  a  great  poet,  and  we  are  accustomed  to  think 
of  him  in  the  Hght  of  his  poetry,  particularly  of  his 
elegies  and  Psalms.  We  think  of  him  as  a  great  warrior 
from  his  youth  up  in  the  successful  campaigns  he  waged  in 
pushing  out  the  boundaries  of  the  kingdom  until  they  ful- 
filled the  promise  to  Abraham.  Then  we  think  of  him  as  a 
legislator,  as  he  devised  many  useful  laws,  but  we  seldom 
give  him  due  credit  for  his  organizing  power.  A  great 
writer  has  said  that  what  Alfred  the  Great  did  for  Eng- 
land, and  what  Napoleon  did  for  France,  David  did  for  his 
kingdom  in  the  way  of  organization.  I  will  take  up  the 
items  of  this  organization  and  give  you  a  clear  conception 
of  it. 

I.  The  Army. — His  army  roll  showed  288,000  men.  It 
would  have  been  a  great  burden  to  a  small  kingdom  like  this 
to  keep  up  a  standing  army  of  288,000  men ;  so  he  divided 
his  army  into  twelve  great  corps.  Only  one  corps  would 
serve  a  month ;  in  the  course  of  the  entire  year  the  288,000 
men  would  have  served  each  one  of  them  one  month.  In 
that  way  the  spirit  of  military  drill  and  organization  was 
kept  up.  In  case  of  war  he  could  call  out  the  whole  288,000 
and  have  a  vast  army  of  drilled  men.  So  his  army  organi- 
zation, we  will  say,  consisted  of  288,000  men,  12  army  corps 

Ml 


24a  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

of  24,000  each,  each  corps  serving  one  month  in  the  year, 
coming  on  in  succession.  Each  corps  was  subdivided  into, 
say,  24  regiments  of  1,000  men  each,  and  each  regiment  into 
ten  companies  of  100  men  each,  something  hke  the  "century" 
of  the  Roman  Legion,  a  centurion  commanding  100  men. 
These  were  the  subdivisions  of  the  main  army.  There  was 
a  bodyguard  always  kept  near  the  king's  person.  I  do  not 
recall  that  anywhere  the  number  of  this  bodyguard  is  given. 
Sometimes  they  are  called  "Cherethites"  and  "Pelethites." 
Whatever  their  name,  it  was  a  permanent  bodyguard  of 
which  Benaiah  was  the  commander. 

Then  there  was  an  order  of  men  sometimes  compared  to 
the  knighthood,  the  600;  the  original  organization  of  this 
600  was  in  the  Cave  of  Adullam,  when  David  was  an  out- 
law, and  it  was  perpetuated  all  through  his  life.  This  600, 
every  one  a  hero  and  champion,  was  divided  into  two  bands 
of  300  each.  These  bands  were  divided  into  companies  of 
100  each,  and  the  one  hundreds  were  divided  into  twenties. 
The  six  captains  over  the  hundreds  and  the  chief  captain 
over  all  make  the  famous  seven.  The  captains  over  the 
twenties  make  the  famous  thirty.  Every  man  of  this  band 
of  600  was  an  experienced  warrior  and  had  signalized  him- 
self on  many  eventful  occasions,  and  every  one  of  the  thirty 
and  every  one  of  the  seven,  that  is,  the  thirty-seven  officers, 
were  especially  famous. 

Let  us  see  if  we  have  this  army  organization  clear: 
288,000  divided  into  12  corps  of  24,000  each;  each  corps 
commanded  by  its  own  general,  with  Joab  as  general-in- 
chief ;  each  24,000  serving  one  month  and  no  more  unless 
there  was  a  war.  In  addition  to  that,  a  bodyguard,  the 
famous  600;  the  three  captains  of  the  first  300  were  the 
most  worthy ;  the  three  captains  of  the  other  300  were  some- 
what less  worthy.  Each  100  was  divided  into  twenties ;  the 
captains  over  the  twenties  make  the  thirty  worthies;  then 
the  six  captains  over  the  one  hundreds,  and  a  chief  cap- 


DAVID  AS  AN  ORGANIZER  243 

tain  of  the  600  make  the  thirty-seven  worthies.     That  is 
David's  military  organization. 

II.  The  Civil  Organization. — The  civil  organization  was 
based  upon  the  law  of  Moses.  Each  tribe  was  governed  by 
its  prince,  and  by  a  graded  system  of  subordinate  judges, 
chiefs  of  thousands,  chiefs  of  hundreds,  chiefs  of  fifties,  and 
chiefs  of  tens,  and  the  ordinary  affairs  pertaining  only  to  the 
tribes  were  attended  to  by  these  men.  That  was  derived 
from  the  Mosaic  administration,  but  in  David's  time  we 
come  to  quite  a  different  need,  the  matters  relating  to  God 
and  His  kingdom.  For  this  work  David  appointed  6,000 
Levites  as  judges  and  he  distributed  them  over  the  whole 
territory.  They  represented  the  national  affairs  only.  These 
6,000  Levites  had  the  following  functions : 

1.  They  were  what  we  would  call  "federal  judges" — • 
judges  over  matters  that  pertained  to  the  general  govern- 
ment. 

2.  Sanitary  officers. 

3.  They  were  charged  with  education.  There  never  was 
such  a  spirit  of  general  education  as  grew  up  in  this  organi- 
zation of  David.  First  of  all,  there  were  the  schools  of  the 
prophets.  They  were  kept  up  and  had  been  ever  since  Sam- 
uel's time.  In  these  schools  of  the  prophets  they  studied 
the  whole  law  of  God,  and  particularly  music,  vocal  and 
instrumental.  They  also  studied  everything  that  related  to 
the  prophetic  office.  That  was  the  curriculum  of  the  schools 
of  the  prophets,  and  that  was  where  David  got  his  education. 
These  6,000  Levites,  each  one  in  his  own  section,  had  charge 
of  the  educational  work,  and  the  result  was  that  when  Solo- 
mon came  to  the  throne  you  find  him  the  most  thoroughly 
educated  man  since  the  days  of  Moses.  Dr.  Taylor,  in  his 
"King  of  Israel,"  well  says : 

"The  pre-eminence  attained  by  Solomon  in  all  the  branches  of 
education  is,  to  my  mind,  an  evidence  of  the  advanced  condi- 
tion   of    the   nation    generally    in    this    department;    since,    unless 


244  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

a  good  foundation  of  elementary  knowledge  had  been  imparted 
to  the  youth  of  the  land  as  a  whole,  it  is  hardly  possible  to 
account  for  the  appearance  of  such  a  man  as  Solomon  in  that 
age.  No  doubt  he  was  endowed  with  preternatural  wisdom;  but 
this,  as  is  usual  in  the  economy  of  Providence,  would  be  engrafted 
upon  a  high  degree  of  ordinary  culture ;  and  the  question  forces 
itself  upon  the  historical  student,  'Who  were  his  tutors,  and  who 
taught  them?'  You  do  not  find  the  loftiest  mountains  rising  iso- 
latedly  from  some  great  plain.  The  highest  mountains  are  never 
solitary  peaks.  They  belong  usually  to  some  great  chain,  and  are 
merely  the  loftiest  elevations  in  a  country  the  general  character  of 
which  is  mountainous;  and  in  the  same  way  the  greatest  scholars 
appear,  not  among  ignorant  people,  but  among  those  who  have  a 
high  average  of  education,  and  in  countries  where  a  good  substratum 
of  instruction  is  enjoyed  by  the  common  average  of  the  community. 
The  historian,  Froude,  has  put  this  thought  admirably  when  he 
says,  'No  great  general  ever  arose  out  of  a  nation  of  cowards;  no 
great  statesman  or  philosopher  out  of  a  nation  of  fools;  no  great 
artist  out  of  a  nation  of  materialists;  no  great  dramatist,^  except 
when  the  drama  was  the  passion  of  the  people.  Greatness  is  never 
more  than  the  highest  degree  of  an  excellence  which  prevails 
around  it,  and  forms  the  environment  in  which  it  grows.'  Now  if 
these  views  be  correct,  the  rise  of  Solomon,  who  was  so  conspicuous 
for  his  intellectual  culture  and  scientific  attainments,  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  proof  that  in  the  reign  of  David,  and  more  particularly, 
perhaps,  in  the  zenith  of  his  administration,  education  was  ex- 
tensively diffused,  and  earnestly  fostered  by  him  among  the  tribes." 

When  we  come  to  study  Solomon,  in  his  time,  we  will  find 
a  reference  to  the  wise  men  of  the  day.  These  were  the 
men  who  grew  out  of  David's  educational  system.  Solomon 
is  but  the  product  of  the  educational  department  set  up  by 
David.  Let  us  now  see  what  we  have  learned  about  these 
Levites : 

1.  They  were  federal  judges,  passing  sentence  on  all 
matters  pertaining  to  the  nation  at  large. 

2.  They  were  sanitary  men,  looking  after  all  matters 
pertaining  to  the  health  of  the  people. 

3.  They  were  educational  men. 

4.  They  were  the  stewards  of  what  is  called  the  ''royal 
property."  We  would  call  it  now,  in  our  government, 
"revenue."  By  a  single  paragraph  we  are  told  of  David's 
overseers  of  the  treasure-houses  of  the  tribes,  of  the  vine- 
yards, of  the  orchards,  pastures,  etc.,  so  that  there  must  have 


DAVID  AS  AN  ORGANIZER  245 

been  what  in  England  would  be  called  "crown-lands,"  land 
that  belonged  to  the  general  government.  In  every  tribe  and 
in  every  important  place  you  would  see  a  treasure-house. 
Let  us  see  what  that  treasure-house  was  for.  The  system 
of  worship  provided  for  a  central  place  of  worship,  and  for 
the  support  of  those  who  conducted  matters  at  the  central 
place  of  worship  there  was  a  tithe  in  cattle,  grain,  vineyards, 
etc.,  so  you  see  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  have  store- 
houses all  over  the  nation  where  these  tithes  could  be  gath- 
ered up.  It  took  a  very  consummate  organization  to  put  all 
these  matters  in  such  working  order  that  there  could  be  no 
deficiency  in  the  royal  treasury  from  any  part  of  the  land, 
nothing  deficient  in  sanitary  conditions.  Nothing  anywhere 
escaped  the  Argus  eyes  of  the  judicial  system  of  govern- 
ment.   Moreover,  David  developed — 

III.  An  International  Commerce. — This  was  a  tremen- 
dous item  in  the  contribution  to  the  wealth  of  the  nation. 
The  kingdom  produced  more  than  it  could  use  in  the  way  of 
clothes,  and  it  was  necessary  to  export  surplus  products  and 
to  bring  in  things  that  could  not  be  produced  at  home.  You 
can  imagine  the  continuous  stream  of  caravans  from  Damas- 
cus to  Egypt  and  from  Tyre  to  Arabia,  across  the  country. 
It  would  be  necessary  to  carry  to  foreign  countries  various 
kinds  of  produce  in  exchange  for  the  things  brought  to 
David  from  them.  In  Solomon's  time  you  will  see  an  en- 
largement of  this  commerce.  He  not  only  reached  the 
Atlantic  Ocean,  as  in  David's  time,  through  the  fleets  of 
Tyre,  but  China  and  India  by  means  of  the  fleet  at  Ezion- 
geber  on  the  Gulf  of  Akabah.  David  would  want  cedars 
from  Lebanon,  and  would  want  to  employ  skilled  artisans 
and  architects.  David  was  a  great  builder.  He  built  a  fine 
palace  for  himself,  and  he  built  many  fine  buildings  in 
Jerusalem.  In  paying  for  these  artisans,  architects  and 
materials  from  foreign  countries  he  would  use  the  surplus 
products  of  his  own  kingdom,  carrying  from  Judah  to  Tyre 


246  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

by  caravan,  to  Damascus  by  caravan,  to  Egypt,  to  Arabia. 
This  necessitated  treasure-houses  and  storehouses,  and 
David  had  them  by  his  system  of  organization. 

IV.  The  Religious  Organization. — The  reHgious  organi- 
zation surpassed  anything  that  this  world  has  ever  known. 
At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  in  any  nation,  was 
there  ever  such  a  perfect  organization  of  religious  service. 
After  David  was  made  king  of  all  Israel  at  Hebron,  where 
he  had  been  reigning  over  Judah  seven  years,  he  captured 
Jerusalem  and  made  that  the  central  place  of  worship,  and 
there  the  great  feasts  were  celebrated.  He  is  going  to  have 
a  system  of  worship  that  will  not  only  impress  the  minds 
of  his  own  people,  but  all  people  who  come  in  touch  with 
them,  so  that  in  the  days  of  the  captivity  the  Babylonians 
would  say,  *'Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion,"  and  they 
would  reply,  "How  can  we  sing  the  songs  of  Zion  in  a 
strange  land?"  and  would  hang  their  harps  on  the  willow 
trees. 

There  were  38,CX)0  Levites  over  thirty  years  of  age  in  this 
religious  organization,  6,000  of  whom  were  set  apart  for 
judges,  sanitary  officers  and  educators,  leaving  32,000  for 
the  temple  service.  These  32,000  men  were  divided  as  fol- 
lows: 24,000  into  24  courses  of  1,000  each,  set  apart  to 
minister  at  the  sanctuary ;  in  other  words  to  be  servants  of 
the  priests  for  anything  the  priests  would  want  done ;  4,000 
set  apart  as  porters ;  and  4,000  as  singers.  The  priests,  that 
is,  the  sons  of  Aaron,  were  classified  into  24  courses.  This 
classification  continued  until  the  New  Testament  time.  Zach- 
arias,  the  father  of  John  the  Baptist,  belonged  to  the  course 
of  Abia,  and  when  it  came  his  turn  to  go  and  act  as  priest 
in  the  temple,  it  was  determined  by  lot,  and  the  lot  fell  upon 
him  to  offer  incense  as  priest.  The  priests  were  divided 
into  24  courses,  and  the  singers  divided.  There  were  24 
bands  of  these  singers,  not  all  present  at  one  time,  but  all 
could  be  grouped  at  national  festivals,  when  the  Passover 


DAVID  AS  AN  ORGANIZER  Ul 

came,  or  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  or  Pentecost,  or  the  great 
Day  of  Atonement;  then  the  entire  4,000  singers  would  be 
there  with  their  various  instruments  of  music;  the  cymbal- 
band,  the  psaltery-band,  the  harp-band,  the  trumpet-band, 
Alamoth,  or  female  choir,  Sheminith,  or  male  choir — every- 
body in  that  4,000  would  understand  just  what  services  were 
requisite  on  his  part,  and  just  when.  One  twenty-fourth  of 
the  time  he  had  to  be  there,  and  on  all  national  occasions 
he  had  to  be  there.  Offerings  had  to  be  made  every  day, 
morning  and  evening,  and  when  you  take  into  consideration 
the  Sabbatic  cycle,  which  consisted  of  the  weekly  Sabbath, 
every  seventh  day ;  the  new-moon  Sabbath,  every  lunar 
month;  the  annual  Sabbaths,  the  Passover,  Tabernacle,  or 
Pentecost  festivals;  the  land  Sabbath,  all  of  every  seventh 
year;  the  jubilee  Sabbath,  every  fiftieth  year,  each  and  all 
with  its  appropriate  and  imposing  ritual,  you  get  some  idea 
of  David's  religious  system. 

When  we  come  to  study  the  book  of  Psalms,  one  of  the 
most  attractive  books  in  the  whole  Bible,  we  will  there  find 
that  the  service  of  the  second  temple  was  based  upon  David's 
plan,  and  led  to  our  present  arrangement  of  the  Psalms.  No 
writer  has  yet,  with  sufficient  vividness,  described  the  wor- 
ship at  Jerusalem  in  the  Old  Testament  times.  Rev.  J.  H. 
Ingraham,  the  Episcopalian,  who  committed  suicide,  at- 
tempted to  describe  it  in  letters  that  a  daughter  of  an  Egyp- 
tian Jew  wrote  to  her  father  about  how  the  temple  service 
impressed  her  in  the  time  of  Christ.  These  letters  are  found 
in  his  "Prince  of  the  House  of  David.'* 

That  was  the  religious  organization.  One  living  in  any 
part  of  the  country,  from  Hamath  on  the  northwest  to  the 
Euphrates  on  the  northeast,  to  Edom  on  the  southeast,  to 
Philistia  on  the  southwest,  and  a  case  coming  up,  there  was 
an  appropriate  officer  to  whom  his  case  would  be  referred; 
everything  was  arranged  for — judicial,  executive  and  legis- 
lative.   Some  things  were  attended  to  in  the  national  con- 


24^8  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

ventlon.  This  occurred  when  the  great  festivals  brought 
the  people  together  in  the  grand  convocation,  or  when  some- 
thing of  special  importance  was  to  be  done  with  reference 
to  succession,  as  we  saw  when  David  called  the  whole  nation 
to  accept  his  son  Solomon  as  king. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  In  what  spheres  was  David  great? 

2.  Describe  his  army  organization:     (i)    How  many  enrolled? 

(2)  How  divided,  and  why?   (3)   What  the  subdivisions? 

3.  Describe    David's    body-guard.     Who    the    commander?      _  ^  , 

4.  Describe  the  organization  of  his  famous  600;  (i)  Its  divi- 
sions;   (2)    Its  subdivisions;    (3)    Who  the  famous  zj"^ 

5.  Describe  the  civil  organization:  (i)  What  part  derived  from 
the  Mosaic  administration?    (2)    What  additions  in  David's  time? 

(3)  What  the  functions  of  the  6,000  Levites?  (4)  What  proof, 
of  the  diffusion  of  education  by  David?  (5)  What  was  the  treas-J 
urehouse?  -     ■    c    *   1 

6.  Describe  his  system  of  International  commerce :,  ^(  i );  itsj 
necessity;    (2)    How  carried  on?  _  _        ,._ 

7.  Describe  his  religious  organization:  (i)  How  does  it  com-^ 
pare  with  the  other  religious  organizations  of  the  world?  (2). 
How  many  and  who  constituted  it?  (3)  Its  divisions  and  sub-^ 
divisions?   (4)   Its  relation  to  the  book  of  the  Psalms? 


XXV 

BOOKS    ON    THE    REIGN    OF    SOLOMON;    THE 
EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON ;  SOLOMON'S  INHER- 
ITANCE FROM  HIS  FATHER 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  p.  164 

WE  will  begin  on  the  reign  of  Solomon  at  page  164  of 
the  Harmony. 
First  of  all  I  will  give  you  a  Hst  of  the  books 
obtainable  by  you  on  the  reign  of  Solomon.  Your  Bible 
text  of  the  reign  of  Solomon  includes  the  first  eleven  chap- 
ters of  I  Kings  and  the  first  nine  chapters  of  II  Chronicles — 
twenty  chapters  in  all.  These  twenty  chapters  cover  the 
reign  of  Solomon. 

Josephus  comes  next.  I  am  naming  books  for  students 
of  the  English  Bible,  not  of  the  Hebrew  Bible.  The  perti- 
nent parts  of  Josephus  are  chapters  14  and  15  of  the  Seventh 
Book  of  Antiquities,  and  the  first  seven  chapters  of  the 
Eighth  Book,  i.e.,  nine  chapters  of  Josephus.  You  can  read 
those  nine  chapters  of  Josephus  at  one  sitting. 

The  next  book  I  commend  very  highly  on  account  of  the 
simplicity  of  it  (anybody  can  understand  it),  and  also  on 
account  of  the  soundness  and  great  scholarship  of  the 
author.  It  is  Edersheim's  "History  of  Israel,"  Volume  V. 
In  the  fifth  volume  some  of  the  chapters  are  devoted  to  the 
reign  of  Solomon.  Anyone  at  one  sitting  ought  to  be  able  to 
carefully  read  over  everything  that  Edersheim  has  to  say 
on  Solomon's  reign. 

The  next  book,  the  author  of  which  is  also  a  great  scholar 
and  a  very  celebrated  man,  but  not  so  sound  in  the  faith  as 

U9 


250  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Edersheim,  is  Stanley's  ''Jewish  Church/*  There  are  three 
volumes,  but  only  some  chapters  of  the  second  volume  treat 
of  the  reign  of  Solomon. 

The  next  book  is  also  one  of  great  scholarship  and  re- 
search, though  its  author  is  more  of  a  radical  critic  than 
Stanley,  and  that  is  Geikie's  "Hours  with  the  Bible."  There 
are  about  eight  volumes  of  that  book,  but  you  only  want 
that  part  on  Solomon's  reign,  a  part  of  the  third  volume. 
It  is  better  than  either  of  the  others  in  showing  the  political 
relation  of  Solomon's  kingdom  to  the  other  kingdoms  of 
the  world.    It  is  superb  on  that. 

The  next  book,  by  Canon  Farrar,  *The  Life  and  Times  of 
Solomon,"  is  one  of  a  series  of  books  on  the  great  Old  Tes- 
tament characters.  On  the  Old  Testament  Farrar  is  decid- 
edly a  radical  critic.     He  is  better  on  the  New  Testament. 

The  ''Bible  Atlas"  comes  next,  which  every  Bible  student 
and  Sunday  school  teacher  ought  to  have.  It  is  studied  in 
Biblical  introduction.  Geography  must  precede  history.  In 
this  book,  pages  69-71,  is  all  you  need  to  consider  on  the 
reign  of  Solomon.  It  gives  you  several  maps,  then  it  gives 
you  some  comparative  maps  showing  relative  sizes.  What  it 
has  to  say  in  a  historical  way  is  very  fine.  You  need  it  all 
the  way  through  the  study  of  the  Bible,  for  it  touches  the 
whole  history. 

Some  Remarks  on  Kings  and  Chronicles. — The  two  books 
of  Kings  are,  in  the  Hebrew,  one  book.  The  division  took 
place  when  the  Septuagint  translation  was  made.  This  book 
of  Kings  covers  more  than  four  and  one-half  centuries,  i.e., 
say  from  1000  B.C.  to  about  585  B.C.  Its  original  material 
was  written  by  the  contemporary  prophets  of  Israel.  Some 
prophet  would  write  the  annals  of  the  kings  during  his  time. 
The  names  of  these  prophets  are  Nathan,  Ahijah,  Iddo, 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah.  Therefore  when  the  Old  Testament  is 
divided  into  three  parts — Law,  Prophets  and  Psalms — Sam- 
uel and  Kings  are  always  included  in  the  Prophets  because 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON  251 

the  author  of  the  book  was  a  prophet,  and  because  the  his- 
tory itself  is  prophetic. 

The  reign  of  every  king  of  Judah  or  of  Israel  later,  when 
the  division  took  place,  had  its  own  annalist,  and  these  an- 
nalists or  historians  were  prophets.  In  this  book  reference 
is  made  to  a  book  called  the  ''Acts  of  Solomon,"  and  from 
a  passage  in  II  Chronicles  we  infer  that  it  was  written  by 
three  prophets — Nathan,  Ahijah  and  Iddo.  Sixteen  times 
in  the  book  of  Kings  there  is  reference  to  the  Chronicles 
of  the  kings  of  Judah.  Of  course  one  man  did  not  write 
all  of  those  chronicles,  but  each  prophet  would  write  the 
chronicles  of  his  day.  There  are  many  references  also  to 
the  chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Israel.  Our  book  of  Chronicles 
is  a  compilation  from  these  original  sources,  probably  by 
Ezra. 

Another  remark  on  the  book  of  Kings :  Not  only  were  its 
authors  prophets,  but  the  history  was  written  from  a  pro- 
phetic point  of  view.  The  history  of  Israel  is  itself  a 
prophecy.  Our  book  of  Chronicles  is  also  unique.  It  is  a 
post-exile  compilation,  i.e.,  after  the  return  of  the  Jews  from 
the  Babylonian  captivity,  and  therefore  it  has  nothing  to 
say  about  the  ten  tribes  that  went  off  with  Jeroboam ;  it  dis- 
cusses only  Judah.  This  book  commences  with  Adam  and 
comes  down  to  Ezra's  time,  on  one  line  of  Messianic  thought 
— just  one.  While  we  use  the  material  of  the  book  of 
Chronicles  in  this  Harmony,  yet  no  man  can  understand 
the  book  of  Chronicles  except  by  independent  study.  It 
must  be  considered  as  the  historical  basis  of  the  new  pro- 
bation after  the  exile,  connecting  with  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Dan- 
iel and  Esther,  and  also  with  the  later  prophets — Ezekiel, 
Zechariah,  Haggai,  and  Malachi.  Suppose  that  there  was  no 
Bible  at  all  up  to  I  Chronicles ;  now  that  book  is  written  so 
as  to  reach  back  to  the  Creation — to  Adam — and  furnishes, 
as  I  said,  the  historic  basis  of  the  probation  of  the  Jewish 
people  after  their  return  from  exile.    Confining  itself  to  the 


^52  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Davidic  line  and  to  Judah,  it  comes  on  down  to  the  troublous 
times  of  the  restoration.  Ezra,  Nehemiah  and  Esther  com- 
plete the  story. 

I  discuss  somewhat  the  empire  of  Solomon.  A  good  map 
will  show  that  the  section  conquered  by  Joshua  was  small 
compared  with  this  empire  of  Solomon.  The  kingdom  of 
Saul  was  a  very  small  section,  but  by  the  conquests  of  David 
the  boundary  of  the  empire  touched  the  Euphrates,  which 
river  was  the  boundary  for  a  number  of  miles.  Then  the 
boundary  came  across  to  the  Orontes  River  flowing  north. 
Then  it  came  down  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Lebanon  Moun- 
tains, leaving  a  narrow  strip  next  the  Mediterranean  Sea — 
Phoenicia — which  was  not  a  part  of  Solomon's  kingdom,  but 
was  under  an  independent  government — Hiram,  King  of 
Tyre.  From  the  lower  part  of  Phoenicia  the  boundary  fol- 
lowed the  Mediterranean  Sea  until  it  came  to  the  River  of 
Egypt.  The  River  of  Egypt  means  one  of  the  branches  of 
the  Nile,  and  that  part  of  the  territory  David  never  con- 
quered, but  Solomon  got  it  by  dowry  when  he  married 
Pharaoh's  daughter.  The  boundary  then  strikes  across  from 
the  River  of  Egypt  to  the  upper  part  of  the  Red  Sea,  the 
Gulf  of  Akabah,  at  a  point  called  Ezion-geber.  That  was 
the  seaport  through  which  Solomon's  navy  reached  the 
Indian  Ocean,  and  the  countries  of  the  Orient,  as  through 
the  seaport  of  Tyre  he  reached  all  the  countries  on  the  Med- 
iterranean Sea  and  even  around  as  far  as  Britain  and  Nor- 
way— all  around  the  shore  of  the  Baltic  Sea.  This  empire 
of  Solomon  is  ten  times  as  big  as  the  kingdom  of  Saul.  Con- 
sider the  difference  between  6,000  square  miles  and  60,000 
square  miles.  You  will  notice  that  the  eastern  boundary 
of  the  empire  touched  the  impassable  desert  at  every  point 
of  the  line.  So  with  the  great  sea  on  the  west  and  the  desert 
on  the  east,  there  is  only  a  narrow  northern  boundary  and 
a  narrow  southern  boundary  to  be  safeguarded.  You  will 
observe  that  this  empire  as  established  by  David  and  reigned 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON  253 

over  by  Solomon  was  for  the  first  time  and  the  last  time  the 
greatest  Oriental  kingdom.  There  was  no  contemporaneous 
Oriental  kingdom  or  empire  equal  to  Solomon's.  I  am  not 
referring  to  extent  of  territory,  but  to  authority,  power  and 
rule.  The  reason  is  that  Egypt  has  been  greatly  weakened, 
and  just  about  Solomon's  time  an  entirely  new  dynasty 
comes  in  with  which  he  intermarries,  thus  insuring  perfect 
friendship  on  the  south.  Then  it  came  at  a  time  before  the 
later  Assyria  and  Babylonia  have  been  established.  The  old 
Assyria  and  Babylonia  at  this  juncture  amounted  to  noth- 
ing, and  Syria  had  become  a  part  of  Solomon's  empire. 
Through  alliances  with  Phcenicia,  which  was  the  great  sea 
power  of  the  world  at  that  date,  and  Egypt,  there  was  no 
Oriental  government  that  could  compete  with  the  empire 
of  Solomon. 

It  exactly  fulfilled  the  promise  that  God  made  to  Abra- 
ham as  reported  in  Genesis  15.  Just  what  God  promised 
to  Abraham  as  to  the  extent  of  the  territory  is  fulfilled  for 
the  first  time  in  David,  and  remains  so  throughout  the  reign 
of  Solomon — but  never  again.  Then  it  exactly  fulfills  the 
prophecy  written,  as  I  am  sure,  by  David  himself,  though 
attributed  to  Solomon,  contained  in  Psalm  72.  There  the 
extent  of  his  reign  is  set  forth  prophetically,  as  it  is  also 
set  forth  in  the  great  promise  made  in  Sam.  7.  The  promise 
in  Sam.  7  occasioned  the  Psalm,  and  in  its  higher  meaning 
is  to  be  fulfilled  in  David's  greatest  Son,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  when  the  empire  shall  be  the  world,  as  told  us  in 
the  book  of  Revelation. 

Now  consider  briefly  the  relation  of  Solomon's  empire 
with  outside  nations.  There  is  no  chance  for  internal  dis- 
turbance after  Philistia,  Syria,  Ammon,  Moab  and  Edom 
have  been  conquered  by  David,  but  consider  the  relation  of 
this  empire  with  other  foreign  countries.  First  of  all,  in 
influence  and  importance  is  Phoenicia — just  a  narrow  strip 
of  palm  beach  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  with  the  great 


g54f  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

mountains  of  Lebanon  back  of  it,  much  like  the  Pacific  slope 
in  California,  which  is  a  very  narrow  slope  with  the  Rocky 
Mountains  back  of  it,  and  very  much  like  the  same  Pacific 
slope  in  South  America  with  the  Andes  back  of  it.  The 
relation  between  Phoenicia  and  this  empire  was  first  estab- 
lished by  David.  Hiram,  the  king  of  Tyre,  made  a  treaty 
with  David  just  after  David  captured  Jerusalem— a  treaty, 
the  favors  of  which  were  all  on  one  side,  i.e.,  David  got  the 
favors.  In  other  words,  by  virtue  of  the  alliance  made  be- 
tween Hiram  and  David,  David  got  access  to  the  vast 
timber-lands  on  the  Lebanon  Mountains,  the  finest  timber 
accessible  to  the  then  known  world.  He  also  got  access  to 
the  quarries  there.  You  will  understand  why  Hiram  would 
want  to  make  an  alliance  with  David  if  you  will  consider 
that  when  David  captured  all  this  country  up  to  the  River 
Euphrates  and  down  to  the  River  of  Egypt  he  controlled 
every  artery  of  land-commerce  upon  which  Phoenicia  de- 
pended. It  is  difficult  to  realize  the  amount  of  travel  and 
traffic  coming  down  from  the  Euphrates  by  Damascus  and 
then  to  Tyre,  and  from  Tyre  distributed  to  all  the  Mediter- 
ranean nations  clear  around  to  the  Baltic  Sea.  Then  the 
other  line  of  trade  was  from  the  same  Euphrates — the 
caravan  ways  to  Egypt.  They  would  follow  either  side  of 
the  Jordan.  From  southern  Judea  there  were  three  ways 
into  Egypt — one  from  Philistia  following  the  Mediterranean 
coast  line,  one  through  the  middle  of  the  desert,  and  the 
one  that  Moses  followed  when  he  led  the  people  out  of 
Egypt.  Now,  as  Tyre  had  little  territory  and  was  depend- 
ent upon  its  commerce,  if  a  foreign  hostile  nation  controlled 
all  of  the  arteries  on  the  land  side,  it  would  break  up  the 
commerce  on  the  sea  side,  for  they  would  have  nothing  to 
transport  for  exchange.  This  alliance  was  of  incalculable 
value  both  to  Phoenicia  and  to  the  empire  of  Solomon.  The 
one  as  a  sea  power  controlled  the  outlet ;  the  other  as  a 
land  power  controlled  the  inlet.     While  Solomon's  had  a 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON  255 

Mediterranean  coast  line  there  were  no  good  seaports  on 
it.  Phoenicia  was  a  great  commercial  country  centering  in 
Solomon's  time  at  Tyre.  If  you  want  to  understand  some- 
thing of  the  nature  of  that  commerce  read  Ezek.  2'j  on  Tyre. 
It  is  the  most  vivid  description  of  a  commercial  nation  in  the 
literature  of  the  world.  It  describes  Tyre  as  a  ship  of  state, 
showing  from  what  country  she  drew  its  products  and  its 
mercenaries,  and  you  will  find  that  all  of  Asia  and  the 
northern  part  of  Africa,  all  the  southern  part  of  Europe, 
all  of  the  islands  on  the  eastern  shores  of  Europe,  the  Brit- 
ish Isles,  for  instance,  are  mentioned  in  that  description  of 
the  commerce  of  Phoenicia. 

I  made  a  speech  once  before  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Waco  on 
"The  shipwreck  of  faith."  Faith  was  described — its  errors, 
in  various  ways.  My  part  of  it  was  to  describe  the  ship- 
wreck of  faith.  I  got  my  imagery  of  the  shipwreck  from 
Ezekiel's  description  of  the  shipwreck  of  Tyre's  ship  of 
state.  It  is  more  interesting  than  any  novel — the  account 
of  the  commerce  outgoing  from  this  city — Tyre.  It  retained 
its  great  splendor  and  magnificence  down  to  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  who  conquered  it.  The  empire  of 
Solomon  had  another  relation  to  Phoenicia  which  I  will  dis- 
cuss at  a  later  time. 

We  take  up  now  the  relation  of  Egypt  to  Solomon's 
empire.  Solomon  controlled  all  of  the  continental  trade 
that  reached  Egypt  because  it  had  to  come  entirely  through 
the  whole  length  of  the  territory  of  Solomon.  It  was  neces- 
sary therefore  for  a  good  understanding  to  prevail  between 
the  Holy  Land  and  Egypt,  and  it  is  the  first  good  under- 
standing since  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  and  Joseph,  and  as 
that  relation  was  on  account  of  a  new  dynasty  coming  in, 
so  this  relation  is  on  account  of  an  entirely  new  dynasty 
coming  to  the  front  in  Egypt.  In  the  later  history  of  Israel 
you  will  find  that  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  and  Babylonia  on  the 
Euphrates,  and  Nineveh,  had  much  to  do  with  this  country 


256  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

in  a  hostile  way.  The  advantages  of  the  relations  are  with 
Israel  only  so  long  as  it  is  the  greater  .power.  The  touch 
of  the  empire  with  Oriental  nations  is  its  Euphrates  border. 
There  is  no  great  nation  at  this  time  on  the  Tigris  or  the 
Euphrates  to  disturb  Israel.  The  great  nations  there  are 
coming  but  they  are  not,  as  yet. 

"Solomon"  means  "prince  of  peace."  His  reign  was  a 
reign  of  peace — peace  with  Egypt,  peace  with  Phoenicia, 
peace  with  the  Oriental  nations  beyond  the  Euphrates,  and 
peace  with  Arabia.  Solomon  renewed  the  alliance  with 
Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  and  rather  cheated  him  in  a  trade, 
very  much  to  Hiram's  disgust.  That  we  will  learn  about  a 
little  later.  Solomon,  partly  from  political  motives,  married 
women  of  many  foreign  countries.  Thus  he  secured  the 
southern  boundary  by  marrying  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh. 
He  was  a  "very  much  married"  man. 

Let  us  consider  a  little  more  particularly  the  commerce  in 
Solomon's  day.  As  I  told  you,  his  part  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean coast  furnished  very  small  means  for  great  commerce, 
because  it  had  no  good  seaports,  and  his  country,  up  to 
David's  time,  never  touched  any  ocean  or  great  sea  in  any 
other  direction,  but  now  it  touched  the  Red  Sea.  Tyre 
becomes  the  servant  of  Solomon  in  reaching  the  whole 
world  through  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  Then  Solomon  built 
a  navy  with  the  help  of  the  Tyrian  sailors  at  Ezion-geber 
down  on  the  Gulf  of  Akabah.  We  have  an  account  of  a 
visit  he  made  to  that  place  to  see  how  his  ships  were  coming 
along.  He  built  a  navy  there,  and  through  that  navy  he 
touched  all  the  East  Indies  and  the  nations  of  the  Pacific, 
all  the  archipelagoes  of  the  Indian  and  Pacific  Oceans  along 
the  eastern  and  southern  shores  of  Asia.  We  will  come 
to  some  interesting  accounts  of  this  navy  in  the  history,  and 
of  what  those  ships  brought  to  him. 

The  land  commerce  I  have  described,  on  the  way  from 
the  Euphrates  to  Egypt,  and  on  the  same  way  from  the 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON  257 

Euphrates  to  Tyre.  It  was  a  period  of  activity  and  travel, 
in  commerce,  in  trade,  in  manufacture.  It  was  a  live  world 
in  Solomon's  time. 

Our  next  question  by  way  of  introduction  is  what  Solo- 
mon inherited  from  his  father.  I  will  give  you  a  summary 
to  show  how  much  Solomon  was  indebted  to  his  father. 
Some  boys  are  very  fortunate  in  the  father  providing  for 
them.  In  the  first  place,  he  is  entirely  indebted  to  David 
for  this  big  territory.  He  didn't  acquire  it,  but  it  cost 
David  many  a  hard,  bitter  war ;  many  a  dreadful  fight.  On 
the  maps  in  the  "Bible  Atlas"  you  will  see  where  a  number 
of  these  great  battles  were  fought  in  David's  time,  so  that 
Solomon  inherited  his  estate.  The  only  part  he  added  was 
the  little  strip  of  land  next  to  Egypt  that  came  with  his  mar- 
riage with  the  daughter  of  the  king  of  Egypt  as  a  dowry, 
and  it  didn't  hang  on  any  longer  than  the  wife  did.  The 
next  thing  inherited  from  his  father  was  a  united  kingdom. 
He  had  nothing  to  do  with  that.  David  united  the  jealous 
warring  tribes.  We  saw  in  the  history  of  Joshua  their  inter- 
tribal differences,  how  their  dissensions  appear  all  through 
the  book  of  Judges,  all  through  the  book  of  Samuel,  and  all 
through  David's  life  until  he  was  crowned  king  of  all  Israel. 
The  third  thing  of  incalculable  value  that  he  inherited  from 
David  was  organization.  That  organization  reached  to  every 
department — say,  first,  the  army.  David's  military  system 
must  have  been  the  seed  idea  of  the  present  German  military 
system.  I  don't  see  where  else  they  got  their  method  of 
organizing  their  army  on  such  a  large  scale  except  from  the 
account  of  David's  military  organization.  In  the  next  place, 
the  revenue  was  organized.  Up  to  David's  time  there  was 
no  revenue  system  or  army.  There  was  a  big  militia,  but 
very  unreliable.  David  organized  both  to  a  nicety,  so  that 
from  every  part  of  this  country  the  stream  of  revenue  con- 
tinually flowed  into  his  treasury  without  intermission. 

The   next   point   of    organization    was    religion.      From 


258  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Joshua's  time  to  David's  time  the  religious  movements  v^ere 
on  tangential  lines.  There  was  no  long-settled  place  to  wor- 
ship; there  was  no  general  system  of  worship;  there  were 
no  well-settled  officers  of  worship  and  no  adequate  ritual. 
David  organized  it  all.  He  had  his  central  place  of  wor- 
ship; he  had  his  priests  divided  into  twenty-four  courses. 
He  had  his  Levites  all  organized.  He  had  the  ritual  of 
worship  established,  and  he  wrote  the  songs  for  the  entire 
convocation  of  Israel.  The  greater  part  of  the  Psalter  was 
written  by  David.  The  times  of  worship  were  also  sys- 
tematized. 

From  David's  time  comes  also  a  thoroughly  trained  pro- 
phetic class.  Samuel  started  it  when  he  established  three 
or  four  seminaries.  From  that  time  on  until  prophecy  in 
Old  Testament  times  ceased,  there  was  a  live  prophetic 
school  of  men  who  represented  God  and  spoke  to  the  con- 
sciences of  kings  and  of  the  nation.  A  corps  of  these  great 
prophets  are  turned  over  to  Solomon  and  work  with  him. 
Among  them  were  Nathan,  Iddo  and  Ahijah,  and  in  later 
reigns  many  others. 

Solomon  also  inherited  an  organized  educational  system 
with  these  prophets  from  David.  No  intelligent  mind  can 
account  for  Solomon's  training  and  attainments  except  upon 
the  pre-supposition  of  a  system  of  public  instruction  by 
prophets  and  priests.  His  attainments  did  not  come  by 
instinct  or  revelation.  He  had  gifts,  indeed,  but  when  you 
read  the  history  of  Solomon  you  see  the  cultivation  of  the 
gifts.  David's  system  of  public  instruction  accounts  for 
Solomon.  Through  the  prophets,  particularly  Nathan,  came 
the  fine  education  with  which  this  man  Solomon  started  in 
life.  Then  he  inherited  from  David  this  alliance  with  Phoe- 
nicia. Moreover,  he  inherited  from  David  treasures  that 
stagger  credulity  in  magnitude  and  variety — spoils  of  all 
the  great  wars,  gold  and  silver  and  jewels  of  the  world. 

Commentators  are  tempted  to  change  the  Hebrew  texts 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON  259 

when  they  come  to  express  the  amount  of  the  treasures  that 
David  accumulated.  Everything  that  would  be  useful  in 
the  great  work  assigned  to  Solomon  was  ready  to  his  hand. 
He  inherited  from  his  father  even  the  plans  as  well  as  the 
material  of  the  temple,  which  is  the  greatest  thing  Solomon 
ever  did — the  building  of  that  house.  All  of  its  magnitude 
and  the  entire  plan  of  it,  with  minute  directions,  came  down 
to  Solomon  from  David.  The  boy  had  only  to  reach  to  his 
desk  and  take  out  complete  plans  of  what  he  had  to  do,  as 
a  king,  and  minute  directions  as  to  how  everything  was  to 
be  done;  the  place  from  which  the  material  was  to  come, 
and  last  of  all,  the  very  labor  that  was  to  perform  the  work 
was  organized  on  a  scale  that  hadn't  been  equalled  since  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt  were  built.  Now  that  starts  the  boy  off 
right  well. 

Then  his  father  had  him  installed  into  office  before  his 
own  death  to  prevent  any  jar  in  the  succession,  and  had  the 
public  men  committed  to  him.  The  great  leaders  of  Israel 
in  all  this  great  territory  were  assembled  by  David  and 
pledged  to  support  Solomon  as  his  successor,  and  they  did 
commit  themselves  by  oath  to  his  support.  Now  if  the 
plans  and  the  money  and  the  material  for  the  house  and 
for  all  his  other  work,  if  the  alHance  and  co-operation  of 
other  nations,  if  the  organization  of  his  own  nation,  came 
from  his  father,  surely  he  was  the  heir  to  an  immense  inher- 
itance. Not  many  of  us  started  off  that  way.  The  most  of 
us  had  to  scratch  right  at  the  start. 

The  next  thing  we  inquire  is,  *'What  did  he  derive  from 
God?"  Of  course  indirectly  all  these  came  from  God,  but 
directly  from  God  was  first  that  divine  providence  which, 
at  this  time,  brought  in  a  new  and  friendly  dynasty  in 
Egypt,  that  weakened  the  Oriental  nations  so  that  none 
of  them  could  be  equal  in  power  to  Solomon.  All  this  came 
from  God's  providence.  Then  the  direct  gift  of  wisdom. 
It  was  from  God.     He  didn't  earn  it,  and  he  didn't  learn 


^60  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

it  in  school.  He  got  knowledge  in  school:  "Knowledge 
comes,  but  wisdom  lingers."  But  he  got  wisdom  from 
God.  How  remarkable  that  wisdom  was  we  will  see  in  a 
succeeding  chapter. 

A  new  era  had  dawned  on  Solomon's  people.  Heretofore 
they  had  lived  a  very  simple  life,  having  little  contact  with 
other  nations  and  wishing  to  have  none.  Now  they  are 
brought  in  touch  with  the  luxuries  of  the  world  through 
Pharaoh  and  Hiram.  The  whole  country  is  on  a  boom, 
just  such  a  boom  as  perhaps  was  never  equalled  in  after 
times.  Silver  and  gold  become  as  common  as  pebbles  along 
the  bank  of  a  brook.  Agriculture,  commerce,  architecture, 
with  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  have  quickened  and  broad- 
ened the  national  life,  but  with  prosperity,  commerce  and 
international  touch  comes  danger  to  religious  life.  We  will 
see  if  national  alliances  and  inter-marriages  corrupt  the  pure 
worship  of  Jehovah.  We  will  see  if  the  Egyptian  and  Phoe- 
nician gods,  with  all  their  cruel  and  sensual  worship,  do 
not  invade  the  Holy  Land  and  prepare  the  way  for  the 
loss  of  God's  favor,  the  dismembering  of  the  great  empire, 
and  its  final  destruction. 

If  through  the  introduction  of  the  false  religions  of  these 
nations  brought  into  contact  with  Israel  through  political 
and  commercial  relations,  the  true,  pure  religion  of  God  is 
driven  out,  then  it  would  have  been  better  if  Solomon  had 
been  like  David  in  his  early  days,  a  poor  boy,  supporting 
himself  by  herding  sheep. 

The  divisions  are:  i.  The  beginning  of  his  reign.  2. 
The  wisdom  of  Solomon.  3.  The  glory  of  Solomon.  4. 
The  fall  of  Solomon. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  books  commended  on  the  reign  of  Solomon? 

2.  Who  wrote  the  original  material  for  Kings  and  Chronicles? 

3.  Who,  probably,  compiled  our  book  of  Chronicles?  (2)  What 
its  viewpoint?    (3)    Its  purpose? 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  SOLOMON  261 

4.  Give   boundaries   of   Solomon's   empire.    How   does   it   com- 
pare with   Joshua's    territory,   with    Saul's,    and   with   David's? 

5.  What  promise  is  fulfilled  in  this  empire,  and  what  prophecy 
is  also  fulfilled  in  it? 

6.  What  the  relation  of  Solomon's  empire  with  Phoenicia? 

7.  What  the   relation  of   his   empire  with   Egypt? 

8.  What  the  relation  of  his  empire  with  Oriental  nations? 

9.  Describe  the   commerce  in   Solomon's  day. 

10.  What  did   Solomon  inherit   from  his   father? 

11.  What  did  he  inherit  from  God? 

12.  Describe  the  new  era  for  Solomon's  people,  and  its  effect  on 
their  religion. 


XXVI 

SOLOMON'S    ACCESSION,    MARRIAGE,    DREAM 
AND  REMARKABLE  WISDOM 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  164-168 

THIS  discussion  commences  the  exposition  of  Solo- 
mon's reign.     It  will  be  well  for  you  to  have  your 
book  open.     If  you  have  no  Harmony,  open  your 
Bible  at  I  Kings  2. 

The  first  eleven  chapters  in  the  first  book  of  Kings  and 
the  first  nine  chapters  in  the  second  book  of  Chronicles  con- 
stitute the  scriptural  basis  of  the  life  of  Solomon.     We 
introduce  this  discussion  with  three  passages  of  scripture: 
I.     Deut.  17: 14-20: 

"When  thou  art  come  unto  the  land  which  Jehoyah  thy  God  giveth 
thee,  and  shalt  possess  it,  and  shalt  dwell  therein,  and  shalt  say, 
I  will  set  a  king  over  me,  like  all  the  nations  that  are  round  about 
me;  thou  shalt  surely  set  him  king  over  thee,  whom  Jehovah  thy 
God  shall  choose :  one  from  among  thy  brethren  shalt  thou  set 
king  over  thee;  thou  mayest  not  put  a  foreigner  over  thee,  who  is 
not  thy  brother.  Only  he  shall  not  multiply  horses  to  himself,  nor 
cause  the  people  to  return  to  Egypt,  to  the  end  that  he  may  multiply 
horses;  forasmuch  as  Jehovah  hath  said  unto  you,  Ye  shall  hence- 
forth return  no  more  that  way.  Neither  shall  he  multiply  wives  to 
himself,  that  his  heart  turn  not  away;  neither  shall  he  greatly  multi- 
ply to  himself  silver  and  gold.  And  it  shall  be,  when  he  sitteth  upon 
the  throne  of  his  kingdom,  that  he  shall  write  him  a  copy  of  this 
law  in  a  book,  out  of  that  which  is  before  the  priests  the  Levites : 
and  it  shall  be  with  him,  and  he  shall  read  therein  all  the  days  of 
his  life;  that  he  may  learn  to  fear  Jehovah  his  God:  to  keep  all 
the  words  of  this  law  and  these  statutes,  to  do  them ;  that  his  heart 
be  not  lifted  up  above  his  brethren,  and  that  he  turn  not  aside  from 
the  commandment,  to  the  right  hand,  or  to  the  left:  to  the  end  that 
he  may  prolong  his  days  in  his  kingdom,  he  and  his  children,  in  the 
midst  of  Israel." 

262 


SOLOMON'S  ACCESSION  AND  DREAM     S63 

On  that  law  mark  the  method  of  succession  in  the  Hebrew 
monarchy.  It  was  not  according  to  the  law  of  primogeni- 
ture, i.e.,  the  oldest  son  does  not  by  law  succeed  his  father. 
Indeed,  we  find  that  it  is  not  according  to  heredity  in  a  still 
larger  sense.  God  changed  the  dynasty  from  Saul  to  David. 
Saul's  sons  did  not  succeed  him,  but  He  created  a  new 
dynasty  in  David.  When  we  come  to  study  the  divided 
kingdom  we  will  notice  quite  a  number  of  dynastic  changes. 
But  all  the  time  in  Judah  the  king  is  at  least  a  descendant 
of  David.  The  dynasty  does  not  change  in  that  kingdom. 
We  have  already  seen  the  law  of  primogeniture  set  aside  in 
God's  dealing  with  families.  For  instance,  Isaac  and  not 
Ishmael  becomes  the  head  of  the  family,  and  Jacob  and 
not  Esau,  and  we  see  it  extending  even  to  the  tribes.  Not 
Reuben,  who  is  unstable,  but  Judah,  became  the  head  of  the 
tribes.  Get  before  you  clearly  the  kind  of  monarchy  estab- 
lished. The  king  must  not  be  a  foreigner,  like  Herod  the 
Idumean  in  Christ's  time.  He  must  be  one  of  the  brethren, 
and  then  God  must  select  him.  A  copy  of  the  Pentateuch 
must  be  made  especially  for  him  and  kept  by  him,  in  which 
he  must  read  every  day  of  his  life  and  live  and  rule  accord- 
ing to  its  teaching.  The  Pentateuch  is  the  national  consti- 
tution. And  particularly,  he  is  not  to  seek  honor  and  riches 
for  himself,  and  not  to  seek  horses  with  a  view  of  any  return 
to  Egypt,  nor  must  he  multiply  wives  to  himself  lest  through 
his  wives  his  heart  be  turned  aside  from  God. 

2.  I  Chron.  22 : 9,  10.  Here  is  God's  selection  of  David's 
successor :  "Behold,  a  son  shall  be  born  to  thee,  who  shall 
be  a  man  of  rest ;  and  I  will  give  him  rest  from  all  his  ene- 
mies round  about;  for  his  name  shall  be  Solomon,  and  I 
will  give  peace  and  quietness  unto  Israel  in  his  days:  he 
shall  build  a  house  for  my  name ;  and  he  shall  be  my  son, 
and  I  will  be  his  father ;  and  I  will  establish  the  throne  of 
his  kingdom  over  Israel  forever."  So  you  see  there  that 
God,  before  this  child  is  born,  elects  David's  successor  and 


264  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

gives  his  name.  "Solomon"  is  the  God-given  name.  He  is 
also  called  Jedediah  and  Lemuel.  But  God  gave  him  the 
name  of  Solomon. 

3.  Psalm  'J2  is  too  long  for  me  to  quote,  but  you  should 
read  it  and  count  it  next  in  thought  in  the  discussion.  It 
is  David's  prayer  for  this  son,  v^^ho  succeeds  him.  The 
superscription  says,  "A  psalm  of  Solomon,"  but  that  is  not 
true.  Solomon  never  wrote  Psalm  72,  but  David  did.  The 
subscription  says,  "The  prayers  of  David,  the  son  of  Jesse, 
are  ended."  David  prays  that  God  may  give  the  king  judg- 
ment and  righteousness  in  order  that  he  may  properly  judge 
the  poor,  and  save  the  needy,  and  break  in  pieces  the  op- 
pressor. And  he  goes  on  to  describe  that  he  shall  have 
dominion  from  sea  to  sea  and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends 
of  the  earth,  and  hov^  the  kings  of  the  earth  shall  bring  their 
gifts.    Verse  17  says, 

**His  name  shall  endure  forever; 
His  name  shall  be  continued  as  long  as  the  sun: 
And  men  shall  be  blessed  in  him; 
All  nations  shall  call  him  happy." 

It  closes  with  "Let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with  his 
glory."  The  primary  reference  is  to  Solomon.  It  is  more 
largely  fulfilled  in  the  antitype  of  Solomon,  the  true  Prince 
of  Peace — ^Jesus.  Consider  that  law,  that  divine  election 
and  that  prayer  of.  the  old  father  just  as  he  is  passing 
away,  and  you  have  not  only  the  name  of  Solomon  and  the 
character  of  his  reign  as  a  reign  of  peace,  but  you  have 
also  the  prophetic  element  in  Solomon  and  in  Solomon's 
reign  looking  forward  to  Christ. 

Our  text  declares  that  Solomon  was  thoroughly  estab- 
lished upon  the  throne  of  his  father  David.  Solomon  was 
quite  a  young  man,  and  said  to  be  wonderfully  handsome 
and  attractive.  His  establishment  consisted  first  in  the 
removal  of  inherited  enemies,  those  that  came  to  him  from 
David's  side,  who  might  have  disturbed  his  kingdom.    The 


SOLOMON'S  ACCESSION  AND  DREAM     265 

first  one  of  these  enemies  is  his  oldest  brother,  Adonijah. 
Adonijah  thought  that  because  he  was  the  oldest  son  living 
after  Absalom's  death,  he  ought  to  have  the  kingdom,  and 
he  prepared,  as  we  learn  in  the  history  of  David,  to  seize 
the  kingdom,  and  as  David  was  supposed  to  be  in  a  dying 
condition  he  set  up  his  claim,  which  was  forestalled  by 
David's  having  Solomon  crowned  king.  Adonijah  was  for- 
given for  that  offense,  but  the  record  tells  us  of  a  new 
offense.  He  comes  to  the  mother  of  Solomon.  People 
oftentimes  try  to  reach  those  whom  they  wish  to  influence 
through  the  female  members  of  the  family,  either  the 
mother,  the  wife,  the  sister  or  the  daughter.  The  devil  tried 
to  get  Adam  that  way — and  got  there.  Adonijah  comes 
to  the  mother  of  Solomon  and  asks  her  to  obtain  the  king's 
permission  that  he  may  marry  that  beautiful  young  girl 
taken  into  David's  home  and  bed  in  his  old  age.  The  ordi- 
nary reader  sees  this  as  only  an  innocent  request,  but  you 
must  consider  the  Oriental  custom.  The  successor  of  the 
king  took  possession  of  the  harem  of  the  preceding  king. 
It  is  that  way  now  in  northern  Africa,  in  Turkey  and  in 
other  countries.  Absalom,  you  remember,  did  that  in  order 
to  certify  his  claim  to  succeed  his  father.  The  context 
suggests  that  Joab  was  privy  to  Adonijah's  request.  It 
means  that  though  pardoned  for  the  first  rebellion,  they 
were  still  contemplating  giving  an  object  lesson  before  the 
people  that  Adonijah  was  entitled  to  be  king.  Solomon 
understood  it  in  one  moment,  and  commanded  Adonijah  to 
be  put  to  death. 

That  removed  all  the  cause  of  rebellion  in  the  family.  As 
soon  as  Joab  heard  of  it,  as  a  proof  that  he  was  a  party  in 
the  matter,  he  ran  to  the  altar  and  in  accordance  with  what 
is  called  the  "law  of  the  sanctuary,"  took  hold  of  the  horns 
of  the  altar.  Now  comes  a  general  library  question:  Find 
the  law  of  the  sanctuary  touching  the  horns  of  the  altar  in 
the  book  of  Exodus,  and  state  whether  Solomon  violated 


266  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

the  law  of  the  sanctuary  in  having  Joab  put  to  death  while 
clinging  to  them.  It  is  a  custom,  not  merely  of  infidels  but 
of  semi-infidel  preachers,  to  charge  Solomon  with  having 
violated  the  law  of  the  sanctuary  in  putting  a  man  to  death 
while  clinging  to  its  horns. 

Joab  was  put  to  death.  He  was  a  mighty  man.  There 
was  no  general  of  his  age  equal  to  him.  Cromwell  resembled 
him  more  than  any  man  of  modem  times,  in  sternness  of 
character,  in  quickness  of  decision  and  action.  He  was  a 
nephew  of  David.  David's  sister,  Zeruiah,  had  three  notable 
sons,  all  mighty  men — ^Joab,  Abishai  and  Asahel.  David 
was  put  to  shame  more  than  once  in  his  life  through  Joab, 
and  on  several  occasions  Joab  was  greater  than  the  throne. 
Two  of  the  crimes  committed  by  him — ^the  killing  of  Amasa 
and  Abner — are  punished  in  this  death  of  Joab.  It  was  on 
David's  conscience  before  he  died  that  he  had  permitted 
this  man  to  live.  He  had  been  of  great  service  to  David, 
and  it  did  not  seem  appropriate  that  David  should,  even 
though  justly,  put  to  death  one  who  had  been  so  efficient 
in  establishing  him  in  his  kingdom,  and  yet  it  was  not  right 
that  this  great  man  in  his  ill-doing  should  go  unpunished, 
and  so  David  bequeathed  the  solution  to  Solomon;  in  his 
wisdom  he  must  find  a  way  to  punish  Joab  for  his  past 
misdeeds.  Thus  we  come  to  the  death  of  this  great  man 
Joab. 

It  was  prophesied  that  not  a  man  should  be  left  of  the 
house  of  EH,  the  usurping  high  priest  before  Samuel,  and 
yet  in  spite  of  that  prophecy  we  see  Abiathar  come  to 
David  and  join  him  in  the  days  of  his  exile  and  act  as  high 
priest,  but  now  this  Abiathar  who  did  not  follow  Absalom, 
but  who  did  follow  Adonijah,  and  was  in  the  conspiracy 
to  defer  the  installation  of  Solomon  and  his  kingdom,  is 
degraded  from  the  priesthood.  Because  of  the  friendship 
he  had  shown  to  David  he  is  not  put  to  death,  but  a  con- 
spirer  endangers  the  safety  of  a  monarch  and  he  is  sent  to 


SOLOMON'S  ACCESSION  AND  DREAM     267 

his  own  home  to  Hve  as  a  common  man.     He  occupies  office 
no  more,  which  disposes  of  that  enemy. 

It  becomes  necessary,  having  disposed  of  these  two  ene- 
mies, to  appoint  successors  to  their  great  offices.  The  man 
after  whom  I  was  named,  Benaiah,  or  as  we  spell  it  now, 
Benajah,  was  appointed  to  Joab's  office,  and  Zadok,  a  true 
lineal  descendant  of  Aaron  through  his  eldest  son,  is  put  at 
the  head  of  the  priesthood.  This  fulfills  a  prophecy  that 
we  considered  in  the  book  of  Numbers.  You  remember 
Phinehas,  concerning  whom  one  of  the  three  remarkable 
declarations  on  imputed  righteousness  in  the  Bible  is  made. 
It  was  prophesied  that  the  descendants  of  Phinehas  should 
occupy  the  high  priesthood.  That  is  fulfilled  now  for  the 
first  time  when  Zadok  becomes  the  high-priest  of  united 
Israel. 

The  internal  matters  all  now  having  been  composed,  this 
young  man,  as  young  men  generally  do,  proposed  to  marry. 
He  selected  a  wife  for  political  reasons.  He  married  the 
daughter  of  Pharaoh,  king  of  Egypt.  Here  a  general  ques- 
tion: Was  the  marriage  of  Solomon  to  the  daughter  of 
Pharaoh  a  violation  of  the  law  not  to  inter-marry  with  the 
people  around?  Form  your  own  judgment.  Some  of  his 
marriages  we  know  were  violations.  He  married  women 
that  were  Edomites  and  Hittites.  The  Edomites  were  kin 
to  him,  descendants  of  Esau,  but  the  Hittite  was  one  of  the 
old  Canaanitish  nations.  He  married  women  from  every 
direction,  and  largely  for  pohtical  reasons.  Touching  his 
first  marriage  we  have  Psalm  45.  Primarily  it  refers  to 
the  consummation  of  this  marriage.  Prophetically  it  refers 
to  the  marriage  of  our  Lord,  the  true  Solomon,  with  His 
glorified  church.  Let  us  look  at  some  of  the  references  in 
that  Psalm. 

"My  heart  overfloweth  with  a  goodly  matter; 
I  speak  the  things  which  I  have  made  touching  the  king; 
My  tongue  is  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer. 


268  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

Thou  art  fairer  than  the  children  of  men; 
Grace  is  poured  into  thy  lips : 
Therefore  God  hath  blessed  thee  forever. 
Gird  thy  sword  upon  thy  thigh,  O  mighty  one, 
Thy  glory  and  thy  majesty." 

Another  part  refers  to  the  Bride : 

"Kings'  daughters  are  among  thy  honorable  women: 
At  thy  right  hand  doth  stand  the  queen  in  gold  of  Ophir. 
Hearken,  O  daughter,  and  consider,  and  incline  thine  ear; 
Forget  also  thine  own  people,  and  thy  father's  house: 
So  will  the  king  desire  thy  beauty; 
For  he  is  thy  lord ;  and  reverence  thou  him,  _ 
And  the  daughter  of  Tyre  shall  be  there  with  a  gift; 
The  rich  among  the  people  shall  entreat  thy  favor. 
The  king's  daughter  within  the  palace  is  all  glorious: 
Her  clothing  is  inwrought  with  gold. 
She  shall  be  led  unto  the  king  in  broidered  work: 
The  virgins  her  companions  that  follow  her 
Shall  be  brought  unto  thee. 
With  gladness  and  rejoicing  shall  they  be  led: 
They  shall  enter  into  the  king's  palace. 
Instead  of  thy  fathers  shall  be  thy  children, 
Whom  thou  shalt  make  princes  in  all  the  earth. 
I  will  make  thy  name  to  be  remembered  in  all  generations : 
Therefore  shall  the  peoples  give  thee  thanks  for  ever  and  ever." 

Now  we  have  the  king  presented  to  us  as  a  puzzled  wor- 
shipper. That  is  to  say,  there  was  in  Jerusalem  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant,  in  a  special  tent  made  for  it  by  David;  but 
there  was  at  Gibeon  the  old  tabernacle  that  Moses  built  and 
also  the  great  brazen  altar  that  Moses  had  made.  Both 
were  places  of  worship.  Solomon  determines  to  have,  as  a 
fitting  introduction  to  his  reign  in  which  all  people  shall 
participate,  the  most  imposing  and  magnificent  religious 
service  known  in  the  world  up  to  that  time,  and  he  proposes 
to  have  it  at  both  places,  first  at  Gibeon  and  then  before  the 
Ark  of  the  Covenant  at  Jerusalem.  The  old  law  required 
only  one  place  of  sacrifice.  Solomon  and  others  before  him 
might  claim  that  the  law  was  to  become  operative  only  after 
the  nation  was  thoroughly  established.  Our  text  says  that 
as  a  house  for  God  had  not  yet  been  built,  the  people  wor- 
shiped in  high  places.     All  through  the  books  of  Judges  and 


SOLOMON'S  ACCESSION  AND  DREAM     269 

I  Samuel,  including  all  the  life  of  David,  we  see  worship 
occasionally  offered  at  other  places  than  one  central  place, 
and  particularly  was  this  so  after  the  Philistines  had  cap- 
tured the  Ark  and  carried  it  away.  So  Solomon  determines 
to  hold  his  first  service  in  the  old  tent  that  Moses  made,  and 
where  the  old  brazen  altar  was,  and  then  he  would  come 
back  to  Jerusalem  and  hold  a  duplicate  service  before  the 
Ark  of  the  Covenant  in  the  place  where  David  had  put  it. 
In  order  that  this  service  might  be  truly  national,  he  sends 
out  a  summons  to  every  part  of  his  empire  that  all  the 
princes  and  chief  men  of  the  nation  should  come  together 
and  participate  in  this  national  offering.  The  record  in 
speaking  of  it  says  that  he  offered  a  thousand  burnt  offer- 
ings. In  the  history  of  Xerxes,  the  king  of  Persia,  when 
he  was  on  his  way  to  invade  Greece  and  had  come  to  the 
Hellespont,  he  offered  a  sacrifice  of  one  thousand  oxen  to 
the  gods.  This  says,  *'And  Solomon  went  up  thither  to  the 
brazen  altar  before  the  Lord,  which  was  at  the  tent  of 
meeting,  and  offered  a  thousand  burnt  offerings  upon  it." 
That  is  a  parallel  in  history. 

After  this  imposing  ceremony  Solomon  slept,  and  sleep- 
ing, dreamed.  More  than  once  the  Bible  tells  us  that  the 
most  of  dreams  have  no  significance,  but  it  also  teaches  us 
that  in  a  number  of  special  cases  God  makes  His  revela- 
tions through  dreams ;  for  example,  the  cases  of  Jacob, 
Joseph  and  Nebuchadnezzar.  Solomon's  dream  was  per- 
haps suggested  by  his  father's  exhortations  (See  Proverbs 
4:3-7)  and  his  own  impressions  at  this  great  gathering. 
For  the  first  time  in  his  reign  he  saw  a  national  assembly, 
the  great  convocation  of  Israel.  What  a  mighty  people! 
What  vast  and  varied  interests!  How  complicated  the 
problems  of  administration !  How  great  the  responsibility 
on  him!  He  seemed  to  be  appalled  at  the  situation,  and 
was  asking  himself  how  he,  a  boy,  could  meet  it.  Thinking 
thus  he  fell  asleep,  and  in  his  sleep  came  this  dream : 


270  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

"In  Gibeon  the  Lord  appeared  to  Solomon  in  a  dream  by  night: 
and  God  said,  Ask  what  I  shall  give  thee.  And  Solomon  said  (and 
I  do  wish  we  could  always  have  him  as  presented  here),  Thou  hast 
showed  unto  thy  servant  David  my  father  great  kindness,  according 
as  he  walked  before  thee  in  truth,  and  in  righteousness,  and  in  up- 
rightness of  heart  with  thee;  and  thou  hast  kept  for  him  this 
great  kindness,  that  thou  hast  given  him  a  son  to  sit  on  his  throne, 
as  it  is  this  day._  And  now,  O  Jevohah  my  God,  thou  hast  made 
thy  servant  king  instead  of  David  my  father:  and  I  am  but  a  little 
child;  I  know  not  how  to  go  out  or  come  in.  And  thy  servant  is 
in  the  midst  of  thy  people  which  thou  hast  chosen,  a  great  people, 
that  cannot  be  numbered  nor  counted  for  multitude.  Give  thy 
servant  therefore  an  understanding  heart  to  judge  thy  people,  that 
I  may  discern  between  good  and  evil;  for  who  is  able  to  judge  this 
thy  great  people?" 

It  is  impossible  for  any  candid  mind  to  read  that  with- 
out being  impressed  by  it.  Let  me  assure  you  that  who- 
ever, on  the  threshold  of  any  great  enterprise,  is  without 
the  spirit  of  true  humility,  is  certain  to  fail.  One  of  the 
best  forecasts  of  success  is  that  he  sees  the  magnitude  and 
difficulty  of  the  work  and  realizes  his  own  personal  insuffi- 
ciency and  his  entire  dependence  upon  the  divine  help. 
Would  that  all  of  us  had  that  spirit  all  the  time!  There  is 
this  thing  about  it :  Whenever  you  lose  humility,  and  begin 
to  say,  "All  these  things  have  I  done,"  then  remember  that 
"Pride  goeth  before  destruction  and  a  haughty  spirit  before 
a  fall."  The  feet  of  pride  are  sure  to  slip  in  due  time. 
Take  the  lesson  to  heart. 

I  can't  conceive  of  anything  more  noble  than  Solomon's 
sense  of  responsibility  and  humility  before  God.  A  boy 
made  king,  king  of  the  elect  nation,  king  of  so  great  a 
people;  in  other  words,  the  destiny  of  the  whole  world  is 
involved  in  the  mighty  religious  influences  to  go  out  from 
him  and  his  people.  Well  might  he  say,  "Lord,  I  am  a  little 
child.  I  don't  know  how  to  go  out  and  come  in.  Give  me 
wisdom."  The  saying  pleased  the  Lord.  I  suggest  a  ser- 
mon :  "Ask  what  I  shall  give  thee." 

One  Christmas  when  we  had  services  in  the  old  church  at 
Waco  and  I  preached  the  sermon,  I  took  that  text:  "Ask 


SOLOMON'S  ACCESSION  AND  DREAM     271 

what  I  shall  give  thee,"  and  I  told  them  that  every  family 
represented  in  the  congregation  had  either  propounded  or 
heard  that  question  in  connection  v^ith  the  day.  The  parent 
had  said,  "What  shall  I  give  thee,  my  son?"  and  all  the 
young  people  had  pondered  the  question:  "I  am  to  choose 
my  gift  and  I  have  a  large  margin ;  v^hat  will  I  take?"  My 
own  little  boy  would  say,  "Give  me  an  automobile."  "Ask 
what  I  shall  give  thee."  What  a  wonderful  thing  it  is  that 
God  permits  to  us  the  statement  of  the  desires  of  our 
hearts.  Even  if  we  keep  on  praying  for  an  evil  thing,  in 
His  anger  He  will  sometimes  give  us  what  we  ask. 

God's  answer  not  only  gives  Solomon  what  he  asks  for, 
but  a  number  of  other  things — honor  and  riches — ^things 
that  he  did  not  ask  for.  He  gave  him  wisdom,  the  capacity 
to  rule  this  great  people.  Our  record  says,  "I  give  thee  a 
wise  and  understanding  heart,  so  that  there  hath  been  none 
like  thee  before  thee,  neither  after  thee  shall  any  arise  like 
unto  thee."     In  this  connection  consider  chapter  4 :  29-34 : 

"And  God  gave  Solomon  wisdom  and  understanding  exceeding 
much,  and  largeness  of  heart,  even  as  the  sand  that  is  on  the  sea- 
shore. And  Solomon's  wisdom  exceeded  the  wisdom  of  all  the 
children  of  the  east,  and  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt.  For  he  was 
wiser  than  all  men;  than  Ethan,  the  Ezrahite,  and  Heman,  and 
Calcol,  and  Darda,  the  sons  of  Mahol;  and  his  fame  was  in  all  the 
nations  round  about.  And  he  spake  three  thousand  proverbs;  and 
his  songs  were  a  thousand  and  five.  And  he  spake  of  trees,^  from 
the  cedar  that  is  in  Lebanon  even  unto  the  hyssop  that  springeth 
out  of  the  wall:  he  spake  also  of  beasts,  and  of  birds,  and  of  creep- 
ing things,  and  of  fishes.  And  there  came  of  all  peoples  to  hear  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon,  from  all  kings  of  the  earth,  who  had  heard  of 
his  wisdom." 

Of  that  remarkable  wisdom  we  speak  particularly  in  the 
next  chapter.  An  exemplification  of  his  wisdom  marks  the 
beginning  of  his  reign,  which  is  here  given.  There  came  up 
a  case  to  which  there  were  no  witnesses  beyond  the  contest- 
ants themselves.  Two  mothers  living  together  in  the  same 
house  had  children  born  to  them,  and  one  of  the  children 
dies.     Then  both  mothers  claim  the  living  child.     Nobody 


272  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

knows  anything  about  the   circumstances  except   the  two 
women,  and  they  come  before  the  king  to  decide  the  conten- 
tion.    The  first  one  claimed  that  it  was  her  child.    She  says, 
"This  other  woman  lost  her  baby;  it  died  and  while  I  was 
asleep  she  came  and  took  my  baby  and  put  her  dead  baby  in 
my  baby's  place,  and  after  awhile  when  I  waked  up  I  looked 
intently  at  this  baby  in  my  arms,  and  found  it  was  dead,  but 
it  was  not  my  baby."     Now  a  mother  is  certainly  able  to 
know  her  child.     'T  looked  intently  at  it.     It  was  not  my  baby 
and  I  looked  over  there  and  I  saw  this  other  woman  had  my 
baby."     The  other  woman  contended :  'T  say  her  baby  died 
and  I  am  the  mother  of  this  live  child."     Under  the  law 
everything  must  be  confirmed  by  two  or  three  witnesses,  but 
here  there  is  no  evidence  except  the  two  parties  in  court. 
How  will  the  young  king  handle  the  matter?    He  says, 
"Bring  me  a  sword."     The  sword  is  brought.     "Cut  that 
baby  into  halves  and  give  each  woman  a  half" — not  that  he 
intended  to  kill  the  baby;  he  was  only  trying  to  get  evi- 
dence.    As  soon  as  he  said  that  both  women  speak.     One 
of  them  said,  "No!  No!  don't  kill  the  baby.     I  had  rather 
give  it  up  to  the  other  woman."     The  other  woman  said, 
"Yes,  kill  it  and  let  each  one  of  us  have  a  part."     This  gave 
Solomon  his  evidence.     He  knew  what  to  decide.     He  says, 
"Give  this  baby  to  the  woman  who  prefers  to  lose  it  rather 
than  see  it  die.    She  is  the  mother."    The  decision  naturally 
attracted    great    attention,    and    the    report    of    it    spread 
Solomon's  fame  far  and  wide. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  first  scripture  used  to  introduce  this  lesson? 

2.  Rehearse  the  items  of  the  kingdom  charter  given  in  this 
scripture. 

3.  What  the  second  scripture,  and  its  import? 

4.  What  the  third  scripture?  Describe  the  kingdom  according  to 
this  Psalm.  Who  fulfilled  this  primarily?  Who  more  largely  ful- 
fills it? 

^  5.     In  what  did  the  establishment  of  Solomon  on  the  throne  con- 
sist, who  was  his  first  enemy,  and  how  was  he  disposed  of? 


SOLOMON'S  ACCESSION  AND  DREAM     273 

6.  Where  do  we  find  the  law  of  the  sanctuary?  Did  Solomon 
violate  it  in  having  Joab  put  to  death  while  holding  on  to  the  horns 
of  the  altar? 

7.  Who  the  second  enemy,  and  how  disposed  of? 

8.  Who  was  appointed  to  fill  Joab's  office?    Abiathar's? 

9.  Was  the  marriage  of  Solomon  to  the  daughter  of  the  king  of 
Egypt  a  violation  of  the  law  not  to  inter-marry  with  the  people 
round-about?    What  Psalm  touching  this  marriage? 

10.  Describe  Solomon  as  a  puzzled  worshipper, 

11.  What  was  God's  proposition  to  Solomon,  and  Solomon's  re- 
quest? What  the  lesson  for  us?  What  God's  answer  to  this  re- 
quest?   Give  an  example  of  his  wisdom  as  exercised. 


XXVII 
THE  ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOMON'S  WISDOM 

Scriptures:  I  Kings  3:4-27;  4:29-34;  10:1-10 

THE  scriptures  that  embody  for  us  the  account  of  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon  are  as  follows :  I  Kings  3 : 4-27 ; 
4:29-34;  10:1-10,  the  book  of  Proverbs,  the  book 
of  Ecclesiastes,  Solomon's  Song,  Matthew  12:42  and 
Psalm  127.  Other  Psalms  are  attributed  to  Solomon,  but 
I  think  not  rightly.    Psalm  127  is  unquestionably  his. 

The  first  passages  cited  give  the  narrative  account,  while 
Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Solomon,  and  Psalm  127 
constitute  Solomon's  contribution  to  the  Bible  as  embodi- 
ments of  his  wisdom,  while  Matthew  12:42  institutes  a 
comparison  with  One  wiser  than  Solomon. 

Before  discussing  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  I  call  your 
attention  to  Old  Testament  approaches  to  it.  The  first 
approach  to  it  is  found  in  Exodus  31:3-6  and  repeated 
again  in  Exodus  35  and  36.  These  plainly  declare  that  the 
artificers  who  made  the  different  parts — the  artistic  parts — 
of  the  tabernacle  and  its  vessels  derived  the  wisdom  with 
which  they  wrought  them  from  God.  They  received  the 
inspiration  of  God  to  do  those  things  exactly  right.  The 
next  approach  we  find  in  the  life  of  David,  an  account  of 
three  wise  women,  II  Sam.  14:2  and  20:  16.  The  first  one 
was  Abigail ;  the  second  was  a  wise  woman  from  Tekoah, 
employed  by  Joab  to  convince  David  that  he  ought  to 
recall  Absalom ;  the  third  was  a  wise  woman  in  a  city  in  the 
Northern  part  of  Palestine  who,  through  her  wisdom,  saved 
the  city  from  destruction  by  having  the  head  of  the  rebel 

«74 


ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOMON'S  WISDOM       275 

that  had  fled  to  them  thrown  over  the  wall  to  Joab.  A  fourth 
approach  is  found  in  the  book  of  Chronicles  (I  Chron. 
12:32)  where  reference  is  made  to  the  men  of  Issachar 
that  were  wise  and  had  understanding  of  the  signs  of  the 
times  and  knew  what  Israel  ought  to  do. 

I  now  analyze  for  you  the  wisdom  of  Solomon.  Our  first 
inquiry  is  concerning  its  origin.  On  the  divine  side  it  is 
expressly  stated  that  it  is  the  gift  of  God  (I  Kings  3,  com- 
mencing with  the  5th  verse),  but  preliminary  to  the  divine 
origin  certain  human  factors  explain  how  Solomon  was  pre- 
pared to  make  the  extraordinary  request  for  wisdom.  He 
was  only  a  boy.  How  did  it  ever  occur  to  him  to  ask  for 
such  a  gift  as  that  instead  of  some  other  things? 

That  leads  us  to  consider  the  human  element  in  the  origin. 
If  you  read  in  the  book  of  Proverbs  commencing  at  7 : 3 
you  see  David's  instruction  to  him  to  get  wisdom,  to  get 
understanding,  as  more  precious  than  rubies  and  gold  or 
anything  else  in  the  world.  All  those  chapters  cited,  from 
the  fourth  to  the  seventh  inclusive,  give  us  David's  instruc- 
tions and  exhortations  to  his  son.  They  tell  us  who  put  it 
into  his  mind  to  prize  wisdom  above  all  earthly  things. 
What  a  glorious  thing  it  is  to  have  the  right  kind  of  a 
father !  By  reading  Psalm  ^2  you  get  at  another  factor  of 
the  human  origin.  There  his  father  is  praying  that  his 
son  may  have  the  kind  of  wisdom  to  rule  the  people,  and 
rule  righteously.  A  little  child  whose  father  is  continually 
speaking  about  the  right  kind  of  wisdom,  and  continually 
praying  that  his  child  may  have  it,  will  Hkely  himself  pray 
for  it.  David's  prayer  and  instructions  are  very  touching. 
They  account  for  the  son's  wise  response  to  God's  saying, 
"Ask  what  I  shall  give  thee." 

Another  human  factor  appears  in  the  book  of  Proverbs, 
the  influence  of  his  mother,  Bathsheba,  not  only  a  beautiful 
woman  but  a  really  good  woman,  and  a  very  wise  woman. 
Solomon  himself  tells  how  his  mother  intervenes:  "The 


276  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

words  of  King  Lemuel,  the  oracle  that  his  mother  taught 
him."     Lemuel  is  another  name  for  Solomon. 

"What,  my  son  ?  and  what,  O  son  of  my  womb  ? 

And  what,  O  son  of  my  vows?    Give  not  thy  strength  unto  women, 

Nor  thy  ways  to  that  which  destroyeth  kings. 

It  is  not  for  kings,  O  Lemuel,  it  is  not  for  kings  to  drink  wine; 

Nor  for  princes  to  say,  Where  is  strong  drink? 

Lest  they  drink,   and   forget  the   law. 

And  pervert  the  justice  due  to  any  that  is  afflicted. 

Give  strong  drink  unto  him  that  is  ready  to  perish. 

And  wine  unto  the  bitter  in  soul, 

But  rulers  should  not  drink." 

Then  follows  her  matchless  ideal  of  a  true  wife — one  of 
the  brightest  gems  of  literature.  Early  parental  training 
from  both  father  and  mother  prepares  the  boy  to  ask  for 
the  best  things.  The  book  of  Proverbs  shows  how  well  he 
understood  the  counsels  of  both  parents,  but  his  later  life 
shows  particularly  his  disastrous  departure  from  his 
mother's  oracle.  In  other  words,  Solomon  knew  more 
wisdom  than  he  practiced.  His  were  not  sins  of  ignorance. 
But  when  we  inquire  what  prepared  the  parents  to  prepare 
the  child,  we  go  back  again,  as  we  always  must,  to  God 
himself  verifying  the  saying  of  James,  "Every  good  gift  and 
every  perfect  gift  is  from  above,  and  cometh  down  from 
the  Father  of  lights  with  whom  is  no  variableness,  neither 
shadow  of  turning."  This  is  manifest  when  we  note  that 
God's  promise  to  give  David  such  a  son  (See  II  Sam. 
7:12-16)  occasions  David's  prayer  and  instructions  (See 
II  Sam.  7:18-29  and  Psalms  'J2)  and  also  quickened  his 
mother's  interest  (See  I  Chron.  29:9  and  I  Kings  i :  28-29). 

The  origin  of  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  therefore,  stands 
thus:  (i)  God's  promise  and  oath;  (2)  Parental  instruc- 
tion, counsel  and  prayer  preparing  the  child  to  appreciate 
and  ask  for  the  best  things ;  (3)  God's  calling  out  Solomon's 
choice;  (4)  Solomon's  choice  and  request;  (5)  God's  gift 
of  the  thing  asked  for. 

Second    question:    What    that    wisdom?    Only    foolish 


ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOMON'S  WISDOM       27T 

people  think  that  wisdom  and  knowledge  mean  the  same 
thing.  You  may  know  a  great  deal  and  be  the  biggest  fool 
going.  I  have  known  people  whose  minds  were  like  great 
lumber  rooms  full  of  odds  and  ends  of  all  kinds  of  things, 
and  yet  they  were  not  wise  enough  to  make  practical  use 
of  the  miscellaneous  material.  Wisdom  is  the  application 
of  knowledge.  ''Knowledge  comes,  but  wisdom  lingers." 
The  elements  of  Solomon's  wisdom  were  as  follows: 

First,  an  understanding  heart  to  discern  justice  and  to 
judge  righteously  and  rule  righteously.  His  wisdom  was 
given  to  him  to  enable  him  to  fill  his  position  as  king  of  a 
great  people.  That  is  how  he  defined  it:  "Give  me  an 
understanding  heart  to  discern  judgment  and  to  rule  rightly 
over  this  so  great  people." 

The  second  element  was  the  regulation  of  passions  and 
life.  The  book  of  Proverbs  continually  discriminates  be- 
tween the  wise  one  and  the  simple  one.  A  wise  man,  clearly 
discerning  right  things  and  applying  right  things,  will  not 
allow  himself  to  be  entrapped  by  seduction  and  temptation, 
but  the  simple  one  is  led  astray  and  a  dart  is  thrust  through 
his  liver. 

The  next  element  of  the  wisdom  was  the  right  way  of 
doing  things.  You  may  yourselves  discriminate  between 
wise  and  foolish  pastors  by  comparing  their  methods  of 
handling  an  affair.  The  most  of  the  trouble  that  comes 
upon  the  churches  comes  by  the  unwise  handling  of  delicate 
affairs.  He  may  injudiciously  gossip  with  his  members 
about  a  delicate  mattei*  and  so  hopelessly  stir  up  his  church  into 
hostile  parties,  or  he  may  preach  about  it  censoriously,  or 
be  hasty  to  commit  himself  on  exparte  evidence  until  he  will 
no  longer  be  able  to  moderate  with  impartiality.  The  other, 
by  wise  handling,  will  heal  the  breach.  When  a  difficult 
case  is  presented  to  a  wise  man  his  first  words  are,  "Let  us 
see  how  we  can  get  at  the  heart  of  this  matter  and  deal  with 
it  wisely  so  as  not  to  do  harm  but  to  do  good."     Up  in  New 


278  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

England  it  is  a  proverb  that  the  wise  housekeeper  is  a 
woman  of  tact.  She  may  not  see  the  right  any  better  than 
some  other  woman,  but  she  does  the  right  better;  she  gets 
at  it  more  skillfully. 

The  fourth  element  was  his  power  to  interpret  things. 
Like  these  men  of  Issachar,  who  could  not  only  discern  the 
signs  of  the  times,  but  could  put  a  proper  construction  upon 
the  march  of  events  and  hence  could  tell  what  Israel  ought 
to  do.  Our  Savior  rebuked  the  men  of  His  day  that  while 
they  could  read  the  signs  of  the  heavens,  and  tell  when  it 
was  likely  to  be  a  fair  or  a  cloudy  day,  they  did  not  read 
the  signs  of  the  spiritual  times,  and  allowed  great  calamities 
to  come  on  them  unprepared.  This  power  to  interpret 
applies  to  natural  as  well  as  spiritual  things.  It  has  been 
said  that  no  man  can  interpret  nature  who  does  not  love 
nature.  But  Solomon  loved  nature,  and  he  could  get  at 
the  secret  of  the  plant  on  the  wall,  and  the  cedar  of 
Lebanon,  and  the  birds  that  fly  and  the  flowers  that  bloom. 
Tradition  says  that  the  birds  loved  him  so  that  the  doves 
would  form  a  canopy  with  outspread  wings  under  which  he 
could  march  from  his  house  to  the  temple.  You  need  not 
believe  the  legend,  but  it  exhibits  the  people's  idea  of 
Solomon's  power  of  interpreting  the  secrets  of  nature.  It 
is  said  of  Byron  by  Pollock  that  he  laid  his  hand  with  the 
familiarity  of  a  brother  upon  the  ocean's  mane,  and  made 
the  mountains  his  brothers,  and  the  thunders  talked  to  him 
as  a  friend.  He  himself  exhibits  his  power  in  the  famous 
poem,  "An  Apostrophe  to  the  Ocean" — a  matchless  poem  of 
its  kind  which  all  of  you  would  do  well  to  memorize.  It 
commences  thus: 

"There  is  a  pleasure  in  the  pathless  woods." 

The  fifth  element  in  his  wisdom  was  largeness  of  heart, 
or  broad-mindedness.  The  scripture  statement  is  that  he 
had  largeness  of  heart  as  the  sands  of  the  seashore.     Sam 


ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOMON'S  WISDOM       279 

Jones  used  to  say,  "No  man  can  be  broad-minded  who  has 
'possum  eyes' — so  close  together  that  you  can  punch  out 
both  of  them  at  once  with  an  old-fashioned  two-tined  table 
fork."  Some  men  are  so  narrow  that  they  cannot  even 
conceive  of  a  big,  broad  subject.  But  Solomon  had  large- 
ness of  heart. 

The  next  element  of  his  wisdom  was  philosophy.  The 
book  of  Ecclesiastes  embodies  it.  He  there  seeks  to  ascer- 
tain the  chief  good  and  the  chief  end  of  man.  What  is  that 
good  thing  that  a  man  should  do  all  the  days  of  his  Hfe? 
Philosophy  inquires  into  the  reason  of  things,  for  the 
philosophy  of  a  thing  is  the  reason  of  a  thing.  You  have 
already  found  out  that  I  have  little  respect  for  uninspired 
philosophy.  We  might  profitably  omit  the  course  from 
college  curriculums.  It  is  all  sheer  speculation  from  Thales 
to  Epicurus  and  Zeno ;  from  Aristotle  to  Kant ;  from  Kant  to 
the  pragmatism  of  Prof.  James  of  Harvard. 

As  William  Ashmore  in  his  review  of  Prof,  James,  well 
says,  "Lewes  acted  as  a  sexton  in  burying  all  the  philosophies 
up  to  his  time,  and  his  successors  have  buried  him."  Their 
speculations  after  all  are  but  "airy  nothings,"  as  varied  as 
the  shifting  scenes  in  a  kaleidoscope,  and  all  as  transitory  as 
rainbows  vanishing  in  the  storm.  Each  successor  does  only 
one  good  thing — he  brushes  out  the  trail  of  his  predecessor. 

Even  Solomon  goes  a  long  and  costly  way  in  Ecclesiastes, 
to  get  at  a  conclusion  obvious  to  a  child's  faith.  Carefully 
observe  that  wisdom  should  be  invoked  in  order  to  do  the 
right  things  in  the  right  way  in  dealing  with  our  fellowmen 
and  our  God;  to  lead  us  in  the  paths  of  judgment,  mercy 
and  truth. 

The  next  point  in  the  analysis  is  to  locate  the  very  begin- 
ning of  real  wisdom  in  the  human  heart,  and  here  you  find 
Solomon's  conclusion  in  Ecclesiastes  in  direct  harmony  with 
Job  28.  That  whole  chapter  is  devoted  to  this  question: 
"Where  shall  wisdom  be  found  ?  and  where  is  the  place  of 


«80  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

understanding?"  and  concludes  by  saying,  *The  fear  of  the 
Lord,  that  is  wisdom,  and  to  depart  from  evil,  under- 
standing/' When  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  we  find 
that  James  says,  *'If  any  man  lack  wisdom  let  him  ask  of 
God,  who  giveth  liberally  and  upbraideth  not,  but  let  him 
ask  in  faith,  nothing  doubting.  An  unstable  man  wavering 
in  all  his  ways,  his  prayers  will  not  be  answered." 

The  next  element  in  the  analysis  is  the  antecedent  charac- 
teristics of  a  seeker  of  wisdom.  First,  humiHty.  Solomon 
says,  "I  am  a  little  child ;"  a  knowledge  of  his  need,  "I  don't 
know  how  to  go  out  or  to  come  in ;"  and  next,  prayer  for  it. 

Our  next  item  in  the  analysis  of  Solomon's  wisdom 
answers  this  question:  How  was  that  wisdom  of  his 
expressed?  And  the  answer  is,  It  is  expressed,  first,  in 
deed,  as  when  he  made  the  decision  about  the  baby  and  the 
two  women  claiming  it ;  the  second  when  he  answered  all  the 
hard  questions  that  the  Queen  of  Sheba  put  to  him  and,  by 
the  way,  he  is  the  only  man  known  to  history  who  answered 
fairly  all  the  questions  put  to  him  by  a  woman.  It  is  also 
expressed  in  the  books  he  wrote,  treating  upon  the  subject: 
Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Solomon,  and  one  Psalm. 
In  these  books  he  embodies  it  in  proverbs,  pithy  sayings  and 
parables,  contrasting  one  thing  with  another,  a  comparison 
obtained  by  putting  two  things  parallel,  which  is  the  mean- 
ing of  parable  originally. 

The  next  point  in  the  analysis  is  the  fame  of  his  wisdom, 
or  the  impression  that  it  made  upon  his  own  time  and  suc- 
ceeding generations.  According  to  a  statement  made  in 
I  Kings  4 :  34,  Solomon's  fame  went  to  all  the  kings  of  the 
earth.  They  all  heard  about  him.  The  Queen  of  Sheba 
heard  a  rumor  of  him.  It  was  carried  on  every  ship,  car- 
ried over  every  desert  on  every  camel,  carried  by  every 
traveler,  "Over  yonder  at  Jerusalem  in  the  Holy  Land  is 
the  wisest  man  the  world  ever  knew.  He  can  solve  any 
perplexity;  he  can  answer  the  hardest  questions.     He  can 


ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOMON'S  WISDOM       S81 

deliver  the  most  righteous  judgments.  He  can  discern  the 
very  heart  of  a  thing  and  lay  it  open."  The  fame  of  his 
wisdom  is  evidenced  by  imitations  in  later  days  and  by  the 
increment  of  extravagant  legends.  The  apocryphal  books 
of  "Wisdom"  and  "Ecclesiasticus"  are  imitations,  centuries 
later;  the  first  is  an  imitation  of  Proverbs,  the  second  of 
Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes  and  Solomon's  Song.  The  so-called 
"Psalter  of  Solomon,"  consisting  of  eighteen  Psalms  and 
found  in  the  Septuagint,  is  another  example  of  imitation. 
Indeed,  a  school  of  wisdom  Hterature  followed.  The 
extravagant  legends  of  his  exorcism  of  demons  and  genii, 
his  magical  powers  vested  in  incantations,  seals,  amulets, 
charms  and  inscriptions,  may  be  gathered  from  Josephus, 
the  Koran,  "The  Arabian  Nights,"  and  a  world  of  Oriental 
literature.  The  Jews  have  a  legend  that  when  Alexander 
came  to  Jerusalem  and  learned  about  the  wisdom  of 
Solomon,  he  took  back  with  him  a  copy  of  Solomon's  books 
and  furnished  them  to  Aristotle,  and  that  he  derived  a  large 
part  of  his  philosophy  from  Solomon's  philosophy. 

In  this  connection  may  be  asked  the  date  of  the  book  of 
Job.  Stanley,  after  a  comparison  of  its  style,  thought,  and 
turns  of  expression,  with  Solomon's  book,  makes  it  a  prod- 
uct of  Solomon's  times.  His  argument  is  very  inconclusive. 
On  the  other  hand,  Dr.  Thirtle,  in  his  "Old  Testament 
Problems"  takes  the  position  that  it  was  composed  to  pacify 
and  instruct  Hezekiah  in  his  afflictions.  His  argument  is 
much  more  plausible  than  Stanley's,  but  the  argument  for 
the  Mosaic  authorship  and  time  is  much  stronger  than 
either.  The  book  of  Job  is  older,  profounder  and  more 
archaic  than  Ecclesiastes,  Proverbs,  or  than  Psalm  73  attrib- 
uted to  Asaph.  Its  correspondences  with  the  Pentateuch 
are  more  numerous  and  more  striking  than  can  be  traced  in 
any  literature  of  the  days  of  David,  Solomon  or  Hezekiah. 
Moses,  exiled  for  forty  years  in  Midian,  touching  Job's 
country,  finds  the  opportunity  arising  from  association  with 


282  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

the  characters  in  Job.  The  unmerited  suffering  of  his 
people  in  the  Egyptian  furnace,  of  which  suffering  he  him- 
self is  an  example,  gives  the  clue  to  the  book.  The  burning 
bush  solves  the  problem,  and  after  the  lesson  appropriately 
come  Genesis,  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers  and  Deuter- 
onomy, increasing  the  light.  The  book  of  Job  shows  how 
men  without  the  revelations  of  the  Pentateuch  attempt  to 
solve  the  problem  of  the  unmerited  sufferings  of  the 
righteous.  Its  key  passages  cry  out  for  a  revelation.  It 
is  on  this  theory  that  the  first  book  of  the  Bible  was  to  be 
written,  therefore  I  count  Job  the  first  book  of  the  Bible. 
The  last  thought  in  connection  with  Solomon's  wisdom  is 

The  Glorious  Antitype, — I  must  speak  a  little  about  Him. 
In  Matt.  12:42,  Jesus  says,  'The  Queen  of  the  South  shall 
rise  up  in  the  judgment  with  this  generation  and  shall  con- 
demn it,  for  she  came  from  the  end  of  the  earth  to  hear 
the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  behold  a  greater  Solomon  is 
here."  In  other  words,  in  the  New  Testament  is  Wisdom. 
Paul  says  so,  using  the  feminine  form,  Sophia,  that  is,  the 
wisdom  and  power  of  God.  John  says  so  in  using  the  mas- 
culine form  Logos,  or  Reason. 

The  Pharisees  asked  this  question:  "Whence  hath  this 
man  wisdom  ?"  They  wanted  to  get  at  the  origin  of  Christ's 
wisdom,  seeing  that  He  hath  never  learned.  Whence  his 
power  to  silence  every  gainsayer  and  to  give  answers  to 
perplexities  that  startle  the  world  today?  Whence  His 
wisdom?  In  Isaiah  11  is  the  prophecy  concerning  the 
origin  of  the  wisdom  of  the  great  antitype  of  Solomon,  the 
Prince  of  Peace: 

"And  there  shall  come  forth  a  shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse, 
and  a  branch  out  of  his  roots  shall  bear  fruit.  And  the  Spirit  of 
Jehovah  shall  rest  upon  Him,  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understand- 
ing, the  spirit  of  counsel  and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of 
the  fear  of  Jehovah.  And  His  delight  shall  be  in  the  fear  of  Jehovah; 
and  He  shall  not  judge  after  the  sight  of  His  eyes,  neither  decide 
after  the  hearing  of  His  ears;  but  with  righteousness  shall  He 
judge   the    poor,    and    decide    with    equity    for    the   meek    of    the 


ANALYSIS  OF  SOLOMON'S  WISDOM       283 

earth;  and  He  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  His  mouth; 
and  with  the  breath  of  His  lips  shall  He  slay  the  wicked.  And 
righteousness  shall  be  the  girdle  of  His  loins,  and  faithfulness 
the  girdle  of  His  reins." 

There  is  the  seven-fold  wisdom,  meaning  the  perfection 
of  wisdom.  That  wisdom  was  conferred  upon  Christ 
without  measure,  and  He,  too,  prayed  for  it  as  He  came  up 
out  of  baptism,  for  the  Spirit  descended  upon  Him  in  the 
form  of  a  dove,  and  ever  afterwards  every  thought  of  His 
life,  every  step  of  His  life,  was  in  exact  accord  with  the 
promptings  of  the  Spirit  of  God  that  came  upon  Him  with- 
out measure.  He  spoke  in  parables,  putting  things  along- 
side of  each  other,  and  He  spoke  in  proverbs  and  epigrams, 
and  the  sayings  of  Jesus  rule  the  world  today.  He  rules  in 
exact  righteousness,  rich  and  poor  alike. 

The  Jewish  idea  of  wisdom  far  surpassed  the  Greek  idea 
of  it.  Theirs  was  unaided  human  philosophy,  and  purely 
speculative.  For  example,  Lucretius,  in  'The  Nature  of 
Things,"  or  the  Epicurean  philosophy  at  its  fountain  head, 
enunciates  the  essential  features  of  modern  evolution.  See 
how  the  Stoics  accounted  for  the  origin  of  things  and  the 
government  of  the  world!  Their  Fate,  and  the  Chance  of 
the  Epicureans,  are  against  God's  Providence.  See  how 
their  wisdom  had  no  practical  effect  on  morals.  Their  wise 
men  oftentimes  were  the  vilest  men,  and  in  the  highest 
attainments  of  their  philosophies  their  cities  rotted  and 
became  putrid  in  the  sight  of  God.  Not  so  with  the  wisdom 
that  God  gives.  In  the  same  way  Gnosticism,  a  subjective 
infallible  knowledge  for  the  few,  bred  a  varied  progeny  of 
asceticism,  license  and  antinomianism.  Christ,  then,  is  the 
great  antitype  of  Solomon. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  scriptures  give  an  account  of  the  wisdom  of  Solomon? 

2.  As  to  its  origin:    (i)    What  the  human  element?    (2)    What 
the  divine  element?    (3)   What  the  summary  of  the  origin? 


284  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

3.  As  to  its  meaning  and  content:  (i)  Define  wisdom  as  com- 
pared with  knowledge,  and  tell  who  wrote  ''Knowledge  comes 
but  Wisdom  lingers."  (2)  Give  the  elements  of  his  wisdom.  (3) 
Show  wherein  is  the  superiority  of  the  Hebrew  wisdom  over 
"the  Sophia"  of  the  Greeks. 

4.  How  does  Solomon  go  a  long  way  to  find  his  simple  con- 
clusion  concerning  the  very  beginning  of   v/isdom? 

5.  What  chapter  of  Job  is  devoted  to  the  same  inquiry  and 
reaches  a  similar  conclusion? 

6.  How  does  James,  our  Lord's  brother,  tell  us  to  get  wisdom? 

7.  What  the  antecedent  characteristics  of  a  seeker  of  wisdom? 

8.  How  was   Solomon's   wisdom  expressed? 

9.  What  the  fame  of  his  wisdom:  (i)  As  stated  in  this  chap- 
ter? (2)  As  expressed  in  imitations?     (3)  As  expressed  in  legends? 

10.  Cite  an  illustrious  example  of  one  brought  to  Solomon  by 
the  fame  of  his  wisdom. 

11.  What  the  effect  on  her  of  witnessing  his  wisdom? 

12.  What  modern   son  perpetuates  her   saying? 

13.  Outline  a  sermon  on  our  Lord's  reference  to  her  in  Matt. 
12:42. 

14.  Who  the  glorious  Antitype  of   Solomon? 

15.  What  Greek  word  does   Paul  use  in   describing  Him? 

16.  What  Greek  word  does  John  employ  to  the  same  end? 

17.  What   was  the  puzzle  to   the   Pharisees   concerning  Him? 

18.  Quote  the  words  of  Isaiah  answering  their  question. 

19.  What  the  great  contrast  on  practical  lines  between  Christ's 
wisdom  and  the  wisdom  of  Solomon? 

20.  Define  Gnosticism  and  Agnosticism  and  contract  Christ's 
wisdom  with  both. 

21.  Explain  Solomon's  sacrifices  at  Gibeon  instead  of  Jerusalem. 


XXVIII 
THE  WORKS  OF  SOLOMON 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  168-178 

THE  works  of  Solomon  were  mainly  buildings,  whether 
of  houses,  or  cisterns,  etc.,  constructed  during  his 
reign  and  under  his  supervision.  The  first  and  most 
famous  was  the  temple.  The  second  was  his  own  house. 
The  third  was  his  wife's  house.  The  fourth  was  the 
upbuilding  of  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  and  its  fortifications, 
strengthening  particularly  the  famous  citadel  of  Millo. 
Fifth,  he  built  two  kinds  of  cities,  and  quite  a  number  of 
each  kind.  One  kind  was  for  the  headquarters  and  pro- 
tection of  his  commerce;  another  kind  was  fortified  cities 
controlling  all  the  passes  from  any  direction  into  his  land. 
Among  the  fortified  cities  note  the  following : 

First,  Lebanon.  He  erected  a  strong  fortification  in  the 
northern  part  of  his  country  in  the  mountains  of  Lebanon 
on  the  great  highway  of  Damascus,  to  guard  the  immense 
trade  that  poured  through  that  city  from  the  fords  of  the 
Euphrates. 

Next,  Hazor,  still  further  North  near  Lake  Merom.  The 
object  of  that  city  was  to  protect  the  entrance  from  the 
South  of  Syria  into  his  country.  You  should  know  the 
topography  of  the  country  in  order  to  fully- understand  the 
wisdom  of  the  location  of  each  fortified  city. 

The  next  was  at  Megiddon  on  the  plain  of  Esdraelon, 
which  was  the  great  battle  plain  of  the  Holy  Land.  It  was 
so  in  ancient  times.  It  was  so  in  mediaeval  times,  and 
according  to  prophecy  will  be  so  near  the  end  of  time. 

285 


286  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

This  fortification  controlled  all  the  Esdraelon  plain.  It  was 
in  the  western  part  of  the  Holy  Land,  about  the  middle  of 
it  not  far  from  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

The  next  was  the  great  pass  of  Beth-horon,  where 
Joshua  fought  his  decisive  battle.  That  is  the  pass  leading 
from  the  Philistine  country  to  Jerusalem.  He  fortified  both 
ends  of  that  pass,  upper  and  nether,  so  that  from  the  Plains 
of  the  Philistines  an  army  could  not  approach  Jerusalem  in 
that  direction. 

Then  on  the  South  there  were  Gezer  and  Baalath,  two 
other  fortified  places  that  protected  not  only  from  the 
Philistine  raids,  but  the  Egyptian  raids  on  the  southwest. 
His  other  fenced  cities — and  I  will  not  mention  all  of  them 
— protected  the  borders  on  the  east  of  the  Jordan,  so  that 
when  these  fortifications  were  completed  Solomon's  coun- 
try was  like  Paris  before  the  war  with  Germany,  and  even 
since,  i.  e.,  from  every  direction  there  were  long  lines  of 
fortifications. 

The  other  class  of  cities  was  mainly  on  account  of  trade. 
You  should  have  a  map  before  you.  East  or  northeast  of 
Damascus,  and  south  of  his  border  on  the  Euphrates,  was 
a  desert,  and  in  that  desert  a  cluster  of  the  most  famous 
springs  or  fountains  in  the  world — perennial  water  in 
abundance  and  beautiful  groves  of  palm  trees — and  there 
Solomon  built  a  city,  Tadmor,  which  stood  a  thousand 
years,  and  in  later  history  is  called  Palmyra,  where  Zenobia, 
the  Queen  of  the  East,  reigned.  If  you  are  familiar  with 
Roman  history,  you  will  remember  her  capture  at  her  capi- 
tal Palmyra,  and  her  being  brought  a  prisoner  to  Rome,  and 
there  settling  down  as  a  quiet  Roman  matron,  marrying  a 
member  of  the  Roman  nobility.  In  history  the  city  of 
Palmyra  is  famous.  In  our  times  it  is  famous  for  archae- 
ology. To  the  ruins  of  Palmyra,  Baalbek  and  Thebes  on 
the  Nile,  and  similar  places,  scholars  go  to  excavate  and  give 
us  the  result  of  their  studies  in  archaeology. 


THE  WORKS  OF  SOLOMON  287 

Solomon  built  quite  a  city,  not  for  land  commerce,  but 
for  sea  commerce,  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Akaba,  and 
transported  a  large  population  there  in  order  that  it  should 
be  held  by  loyal  Jews,  as  that  was  his  only  good  seaport. 
Those  on  the  Mediterranean  coast  that  lay  within  the 
boundary  of  his  country — Joppa,  for  example — were  very 
poor  seaports. 

The  next  great  buildings  in  connection  with  his  reign 
were  the  store  houses,  immense  structures  on  all  the  lines  of 
traffic  leading  to  Jerusalem  where  the  revenues  of  the  king 
were  collected.  Then  the  great  stables  that  he  erected  for 
the  housing  of  his  chariot  horses  and  cavalry  horses. 

Another  great  work  of  Solomon  was  the  building  of 
roads.  Our  city  papers  say  much  about  the  split-log  drag 
and  the  necessity  for  good  wagon  roads,  roads  for  foot 
passengers  and  horsemen,  for  bringing  the  country  products 
to  the  city  markets.  Solomon's  system  of  roads  became  as 
famous  as  the  roads  described  by  Prescott  in  the  history  of 
Peru,  which  are  ahead  of  any  in  history  except  the  Roman 
roads. 

A  very  difficult  work  of  Solomon  was  the  building  of  a 
navy  of  his  own.  When  he  traded  in  the  Mediterranean  he 
had  to  use  the  ships  of  Tyre,  just  as  a  great  part  of  our 
trade  now  is  carried  on  in  English  or  German  bottoms. 
That  is  not  as  helpful  to  a  country  as  to  have  its  own  mer- 
chant marine,  its  own  ships  for  carriage.  A  tremendous 
change  in  Solomon's  kingdom  was  brought  about  by  the 
establishment  of  this  navy  of  his  at  Ezion-geber  at  the  head 
of  the  Gulf  of  Akaba,  which  is  a  part  of  the  Red  Sea. 
Those  ships  were  manned  largely  by  Tyrians,  as  the  Jews 
were  not  good  sailors,  and  that  fleet  would  set  sail  with 
imposing  ceremony,  to  be  gone  three  years.  That  is  a  very 
considerable  voyage.  The  fleet  would  sail  down  the  Indian 
Ocean  to  the  East  Indies,  Borneo,  Sumatra,  and  other 
islands  of  the  archipelago  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  then  on 


288  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

to  the  archipelagos  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  all  down  the 
Eastern  coast  of  Africa. 

Before  Solomon's  time  Africa  had  been  circumnavigated. 
Fleets,  starting  in  the  Red  Sea,  had  gone  clear  around  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  South  Africa,  and  back  into  the 
Mediterranean  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar.  They 
seemed  to  have  forgotten  about  this  when,  not  long  before 
the  time  of  Columbus,  Vasco  De  Gama  circumnavigated 
Africa,  but  it  had  been  done  before  Solomon's  time.  That 
fleet  would  bring  him  back  spices,  jewels,  gold  and  silver,  and 
it  mentions  in  your  text  here  peacocks  among  other  things, 
with  the  hundred  eyes  of  Argus  in  their  tails,  according  to 
Greek  legend.  You  remember  that  Juno  appointed  Argus, 
because  he  had  a  hundred  eyes,  to  watch  Jupiter  and  see 
that  he  did  not  stay  out  at  night,  and  Jupiter  employed 
Mercury  to  play  on  his  flute,  and  by  its  music  to  put  Argus 
to  sleep,  and  while  asleep  to  kill  him ;  and  then  Jupiter  had 
his  own  sweet  will  without  espionage.  But  Juno  put  the 
eyes  of  Argus  in  the  peacock's  tail,  and  indeed  if  his  eyes 
could  serve  no  better  purpose  while  in  his  head,  they  might 
as  well  be  in  a  bird's  tail. 

In  Hurlbut's  "Bible  Atlas"  is  a  detailed  description  of 
Solomon's  most  famous  building — the  temple  of  the  Lord. 
You  must  not  expect  from  me  an  elaborate  description  of 
the  temple.     I  submit,  rather,  some  salient  points. 

I.  The  Plan  and  Specifications. — These  were  all  given  to 
David  by  inspiration  of  God.  The  Temple  proper  was  but 
an  enlargement  of  the  house  built  by  Moses,  with  relative 
proportions  preserved  throughout.  The  plan  of  the  house 
built  by  Moses  was  also  inspired.  This  we  studied  in 
Exodus. 

n.  The  Date. — On  page  170  of  your  book  this  statement 
is  made :  "And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  480th  year  after  the 
children  of  Israel  were  come  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  in 


THE  WORKS  OF  SOLOMON  289 

the  fourth  year  of  Solomon's  reign  over  Israel,  in  the  month 
of  Ziv,  which  is  the  second  month,  that  he  began  to  build 
the  house  of  the  Lord,"  and  on  the  second  day  of  that  sec- 
ond month,  as  you  see  from  the  corresponding  passage  in 
Chronicles,  this  temple  was  commenced.  This  specific 
date,  so  circumstantially  given,  has  puzzled  many  com- 
mentators. They  don't  know  how  to  fit  the  events  of 
Moses,  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel  and  David  into  just  480 
years.  It  is  the  governing  passage  that  largely  influenced 
Archbishop  Usher  in  arranging  the  chronology  as  you  see  it 
at  the  head  of  your  King  James  Bible. 

Turn  now  to  page  173:  "In  the  fourth  year  was  the 
foundation  of  the  house  of  the  Lord  laid,  in  the  month  of 
Ziv.  And  in  the  eleventh  year,  in  the  month  Bui,  which  is 
the  eighth  month,  was  the  house  finished  throughout  all  the 
parts  thereof,  and  according  to  all  the  fashion  of  it.  So 
was  he  seven  years  in  building  it."  Not  only  the  building 
itself,  but  all  its  furniture,  the  utensils  and  implements  of 
every  kind  put  in  the  temple  and  used  in  its  worship,  was 
a  work  of  seven  years. 

The  next  salient  point  worthy  of  your  attention  is  the 
message  of  the  Lord  to  Solomon  when  he  was  about  to 
commence  this  work.  You  find  it  on  page  170  at  the 
bottom :  "And  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  Solomon,  say- 
ing, Concerning  this  house  which  thou  art  building,  if  thou 
wilt  walk  in  my  statutes  and  execute  my  judgments,  and 
keep  all  of  my  commandments  to  walk  in  them;  then  will 
I  perform  my  word  with  thee,  which  I  spake  unto  David, 
thy  father.  And  I  will  dwell  among  the  children  of 
Israel  and  will  not  forsake  my  people  Israel."  This  is  what 
He  says  to  Solomon,  "You  have  commenced  to  build  a 
house  for  me.  I  come  to  tell  you  that  I  am  with  you,  and 
give  you  my  promise  at  the  start  that  it  shall  be  God's 
dwelling-place."  When  we  come  to  the  next  visit  the  Lord 
makes  to  Solomon,  when  the  house  was  dedicated,  I  will 


290  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

give  you  another  remarkable  passage,  but  this  one  is  at  the 
commencement  of  the  work. 

The  next  thing  we  note  is  the  site.  The  first  intimation 
of  the  site  is  given  to  us  in  Abraham's  time.  Abraham  was 
commanded  to  take  his  son  Isaac  and  offer  him  up  as  a 
burnt  offering  upon  Mount  Moriah,  then  held  by  the  Jebu- 
sites ;  and  on  that  mountain  and  at  the  very  place  where  the 
temple  was  subsequently  erected,  there  the  symbolic  fore- 
cast of  the  offering  up  of  a  greater  Isaac  took  place.  The 
next  account  that  we  have  of  the  site  is  when  the  great 
plague  came  upon  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  and  David 
to  avert  the  plague  presented  himself  before  God,  and 
offered  to  die  for  his  people,  to  let  the  punishment  come 
upon  him  and  spare  the  people.  When  he  saw  the  angel  of 
death  approaching  Jerusalem,  he  boldly  went  forth  to 
meet  the  angel,  and  proposed  a  substitutionary  sacrifice 
of  himself ;  and  then  the  plague  was  stayed,  and  at  the 
place  where  the  plague  was  stayed,  David  bought  the 
threshing-floor  of  Araunah,  the  Jebusite,  and  marked  it 
out  as  the  site  where  God's  house  was  to  be  erected, 
where  the  great  sacrifices  were  to  be  offered  throughout 
the  ages,  that  were  to  foretell  the  coming  of  the  greatest 
Sacrifice. 

Next  in  importance  is  the  great  work  of  preparing  the 
foundation.  You  must  conceive  of  an  irregularly  shaped 
mountain  whose  crest  was  taken  off  low  enough  down  the 
mountain  to  give  sufficient  area.  If  on  three  sides  the 
mountain  sloped  down  into  the  valley,  a  wall  must  be  built 
on  those  three  sides  high  enough  for  the  desired  level,  and 
the  crest  taken  off  must  be  used  to  fill  in  all  the  space  to  a 
level  with  the  wall  summit.  On  one  side  there  would  be  no 
wall.  The  area  of  the  space  thus  leveled  was  about  thirty 
acres  in  the  shape  of  a  trapezoid,  one  side  of  which  was 
1,520  feet;  the  opposite  side  1,611  feet;  one  end  1,017  feet, 
and  the  other  end  921  feet.     Of  course,  the  height  of  the 


THE  WORKS  OF  SOLOMON  291 

wall  would  vary  on  the  three  sides,  according  to  the  dip  of 
the  slope  into  the  valley  below.  The  greatest  height  of  the 
wall  was  143  feet.  This  perpendicular  wall,  built  of 
immense  stones  bevelled  into  each  other  without  cement, 
would  render  the  temple  area  unapproachable  and  impreg- 
nable on  three  sides.  The  fourth  side  was  safe-guarded  by 
an  immense  moat,  and  by  the  fortified  tower  of  Millo.  The 
crest  of  the  mountain  taken  off  was  not  sufficient  in  bulk  to 
fill  in  on  the  three  sides  up  to  the  top  of  the  wall,  and  then 
to  furnish  stones  for  the  buildings  and  terraces.  So  Solo- 
mon opened  quarries  on  the  other  mountain  sides,  tunneling 
under  the  city  itself.  There  today  may  be  seen  Solomon's 
subterranean  quarries,  where  slaves  toiled  in  the  heart  of 
the  earth.  Their  bones  are  yet  where  they  died,  and  the 
marks  of  their  implements  on  the  everlasting  rock,  and  some 
of  the  mammoth  unused  stones.  These  slaves  were  the 
unassimilated  Canaanites,  fed  and  clothed  indeed  after  a 
fashion,  but  without  wages.  So  also  the  multitude  of 
laborers  who  were  sent  to  Tyre  under  overseers  to  get  out 
the  forest  timbers,  were  conscript  laborers,  thousands  of 
them,  working  in  reliefs  under  taskmasters. 

But  Solomon  had  nobody  in  his  kingdom  skillful  enough 
to  direct  the  stone  work  and  establish  foundries  for  the 
materials  of  brass,  silver  and  gold.  So  he  appealed  to 
Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  for  an  expert  superintendent.  The 
king  of  Tyre  sent  him  the  son  of  a  widow,  also  called 
Hiram.  If  you  ever  get  to  be  a  Mason,  you  will  hear  more 
about  Hiram  Abiff.  He  was  the  architect  of  the  whole 
business,  and  had  the  full  superintendence  of  everything. 
Your  text  here  gives  an  account  of  him,  and  of  what  he  did 
in  constructing  the  Temple. 

An  equally  stupendous  work  in  the  way  of  preparation 
had  to  be  done,  namely,  to  provide  an  adequate  water 
supply.  To  this  end,  he  built  enormous  cisterns  capable  of 
holding  many  millions  of  barrels  of  water,  and  aqueducts 


29S  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

for  carrying  the  water.     He  built  pools,  like  the  Pool  of 
Siloam,  and  vast  reservoirs. 

You  must  not  conceive  of  the  35  acres  as  one  level,  but 
several  terraced  levels,  one  terrace  rising  above  another 
until  on  the  highest  level  is  the  temple  proper  and  its  imme- 
diate approaches.  The  lowest  level  was  the  court  of  the 
Gentiles,  a  higher  level  the  court  of  the  women.  The  whole 
area  with  its  inner  divisions  corresponds  in  general  plan  to 
the  enclosed  area  around  the  tabernacle  of  Moses  and  the 
tent  itself.  The  temple  proper,  itself  a  small  building,  was 
only  the  tent  of  Moses  on  a  larger  scale,  all  relative  propor- 
tions preserved. 

The  lumber  material  was  more  difficult  to  procure  than 
the  stone  material.  It  came  from  the  forests  of  Lebanon — 
cedar  and  fir.  The  getting  out  of  the  timber  from  the 
forest,  and  the  floating  of  it  in  great  rafts  from  Tyre  to 
Joppa,  was  performed  by  Hiram's  men.  Solomon  fur- 
nished the  rations  and  compensated  for  the  labor  by  giving 
King  Hiram  ten  cities.  When  Hiram  came  to  inspect  the 
cities,  he  found  them  to  be  only  sites  for  cities,  something 
like  Charles  Dickens'  description  of  American  cities,  which 
existed  only  in  sanguine  prospect,  or  like  the  Bible  descrip- 
tion of  Jerusalem  in  the  days  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah :  ''Now 
the  city  was  exceedingly  large,  only  the  houses  were  not  yet 
built,  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  were  few."  Hiram,  in 
disgust,  refused  to  receive  them,  and  Solomon  buih 
them  and  peopled  them  with  Jews.  It  has  always  seemed, 
on  the  face  of  it,  that  Solomon  played  an  unworthy  Yankee 
trick  on  his  confiding  and  generous  ally.  Solomon's  own 
men  had  to  transport  this  lumber  material  all  the  way  up 
hill  from  Joppa  to  Jerusalem,  and  there,  under  the  skilled 
supervision  of  Hiram,  the  widow's  son,  they  were  fashioned 
for  their  place  in  the  temple.  Indeed,  every  part,  whether 
of  stone,  timber  or  metal,  was  so  skillfully  fashioned  that 
the  temple  went  up  without  the  sound  of  axe,  saw  or  ham- 


THE  WORKS  OF  SOLOMON 

mer.  So  the  spiritual  temple  arises  in  silence  rather  than 
noise.  The  kingdom  of  Heaven  comes  not  with  observa- 
tion. ''Sanctified  rows,"  as  in  many  modern  meetings,  and 
confusions  of  mingled  services,  as  at  Corinth,  are  not  con- 
tributory to  the  edifying  of  the  temple  of  Christ. 

There  are  some  very  striking  references  to  the  works  of 
Solomon  in  the  books  of  Ecclesiastes  and  the  Song.  For 
instance,  this  passage  from  Ecclesiastes  2 — Solomon  him- 
self talking :  'T  made  me  great  works,  I  builded  me  houses ; 
I  planted  me  vineyards;  I  made  me  gardens  and  orchards, 
and  I  planted  trees  in  them  of  all  kinds  of  fruits ;  I  made 
me  pools  of  water,  to  water  therewith  the  wood  that 
bringeth  forth  trees." 

The  gardens  or  paradises  built  by  Solomon,  the  principal 
ones,  were  these:  One  near  Jerusalem,  where  tremendous 
work  in  the  rock  had  to  be  made  to  get  space — terrace 
space — for  his  garden.  Another  was  built  about  seven 
miles  south  of  Jerusalem,  near  Bethlehem ;  and  his  summer 
park  was  at  Mount  Lebanon,  described  in  the  Song  of 
Solomon,  and  when  the  hot  summertime  would  come,  and 
he  would  start  to  that  summer  resort  in  the  mountains,  a 
palanquin,  or  traveling  carriage  was  made,  and  what  a 
gorgeous  thing  it  was !  As  it  was  a  mountainous  country, 
a  palanquin  was  used  and  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  men, 
but  not  until  he  got  to  a  point  where  a  chariot  could  not  be 
used;  up  to  that  point  he  went  in  a  beautiful  chariot,  the 
finest  ever  known,  drawn  by  the  finest  of  horses,  as  that 
Song  tells  you :  ''Who  is  this  that  cometh  out  of  the  wilder- 
ness Hke  pillars  of  smoke,  perfumed  with  myrrh  and  frank- 
incense, with  all  the  powders  of  the  merchant?" 

The  era  of  all  these  famous  works  was  one  of  peace. 
These  are  not  the  achievements  of  unsettled  times.  War  is 
destructive,  not  constructive.  Solomon  was  not  a  man  of 
blood,  but  the  prince  of  peace,  and  hence  the  type  of  Him 
at  whose  triumph  all  wars  cease  for  ever. 


294  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  the  principal  building  works  of  Solomon  in  Jerusalem? 

2.  What  two  kinds  of  cities  elsewhere? 

3.  Cite  the  more  important  fortified  cities  and  the  purpose  of  each. 

4.  Locate  and  describe  the  trade  city  of  Tadmor,  and  give 
something  of  its  subsequent  history. 

5.  What  city  for  sea  trade,  and  how  peopled? 

6.  Why  was  he  dependent  upon  the  Phoenician  cities  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon   for   Mediterranean   trade? 

7.  Locate  and  give  the  reason  for  building  Ezion-geber,  and 
describe  the  commerce  promoted  by  it.  Tell  about  his  fleet  there, 
how  manned  and  why,  the  time  length  of  its  voyages,  the  coun- 
tries visited,  and  the  products  imported. 

8.  Was  Africa  circumnavigated  before  the  famous  voyages 
around  it  by  Vasco  De  Gama?     How  was  it  done? 

9.  Where,  probably,  the  Ophir  of  the  ancients?  Where  Tar- 
shish  ? 

10.  What  did  Solomon  in  the  way  of  roads,  and  what  other 
countries  since  his  time  were  noted  for  the  building  of  good 
roads? 

11.  What  attention  is  given  to  this  matter  by  our  country  now? 

12.  How  were  the  plans  and  specifications  of  the  temple  ob- 
tained, and  through  whom? 

13.  What  previous  plan  on  a  smaller  scale  was  followed,  and 
how  and  through  whom  was  it  obtained?  _ 

14.  Why  was  Jehovah  so  particular  in  insisting  on  exact  con- 
formity with   every   detail  of   His  plan? 

15.  What  the  site  of  the  temple,  and  the  two  great  historical 
events  leading  to  its  selection,  and  their  typical  import? 

16.  Where  may  we  find  the  details  of  the  temple  structure? 

17.  Give   the   date  of   its  beginning,    and   time  of   its   building? 

18.  Describe  the  foundation  work,  the  area  obtained,  and  its 
shape  and  side  dimensions. 

19.  Whence  the  material  for  this  foundation  work,  the  laborers, 
and  the  modern  evidence  of  their  labor? 

20.  How  many  levels  on  this  area,  and  the  purpose  of  each? 

21.  Whence  and  what  the  materials  of  wood,  how  gotten  out 
and  transported,  who  the  laborers,  how  many,  and  how  supplied 
with   food? 

22.  Who  was  the  human  architect? 

23.  Besides  food  supplies,  how  did  Solomon  compensate  Hiram, 
king  of  Tyre,  for  his  help,  what  Hiram's  opinion  of  the  bargain, 
and  what  became  of  the  rejected  compensation? 

24.  What  evidence  of  the  perfect  preparation  of  every  piece 
of  material  before  it  was  put  into  the  building,  and  what  the 
typical   import? 

25.  What  became  of  Solomon's  temple,  and  whose  succeeded 
it?  What  its  fortunes,  and  who  restored  it  on  a  grand  scale 
near  the  time  of  our  Lord,  and  what  became  of  it?  What  build- 
ing  now   occupies    the   ancient    building    site? 

26.  Of  what  was  the  tabernacle  of  Moses  and  Solomon's  temple 
a  type? 


XXIX 

DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  178-192 

THIS  discussion  begins  on  page  178  of  the  Harmony, 
and  relates  to  the  dedication  of  the  temple.  We 
have  already  shown  that  the  building  of  the  temple 
was  the  greatest  work  of  Solomon ;  that  it  made  the  greatest 
impression  upon  the  world's  mind  of  any  structure  that  had 
ever  been  erected  in  human  history.  The  importance  of 
the  temple  was  to  insure  a  central  place  of  worship,  or  of 
sacrifice,  rather.  The  object  of  it  was  to  bring  about  unity 
of  faith,  and  national  unity  among  the  people.  The  idea 
comes  from  the  following  legislation  by  Moses :  **When  you 
shall  obtain  possession  of  the  land  and  have  become  estab- 
lished, then  you  shall  have  one  place  in  which  to  appear 
before  the  Lord."  In  brief,  the  purposes  of  the  temple 
were  these : 

1.  To  provide  a  fixed  habitation  for  Jehovah. 

2.  To  provide  a  central  place  of  worship  where  the  tribes 
might  assemble  at  the  three  great  annual  festivals  and  thus 
preserve  the  unity  of  the  nation,  Jehovah  being  the  center 
of  unity.  In  other  words,  as  we  explained  on  Leviticus, 
there  must  be :  (a)  A  place  to  meet  Jehovah  on  the  throne 
of  grace.  (b)  Sacrifices,  or  means  of  propitiation, 
(c)  Priests,  or  Intermediaries  between  Jehovah  and  the 
people,  (d)  Times  in  which  to  approach  Him,  that  is,  with 
daily,  weekly,  monthly  and  annual  offerings,  (e)  A  Ritual, 
telling  how  to  approach  Him. 

3.  To  prefigure  the  more  glorious  building,  the  church  of 

295 


296  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

our  Lord.  A  magnificent  building,  with  an  imposing  ritual, 
and  with  fixed  times  of  gathering  the  whole  nation  together, 
would  bring  about  this  unity  of  faith  and  unity  of  national 
life.  The  building  having  been  completed,  Solomon  now 
proposes  to  publicly  and  formally  dedicate  it  to  the  service 
of  God.  God  had  told  him  when  he  commenced  the  build- 
ing that  He  would  inhabit  the  house  built  for  Him,  and  now 
Solomon  proposes,  by  a  very  solemn  national  service,  to  con- 
secrate this  house  to  the  Lord.  I  do  not  suppose  that  from 
any  other  one  source,  indeed  from  all  other  sources  put 
together,  that  we  get  the  idea  of  dedication-services  so 
much  as  from  this.  The  house  could  not  be  dedicated  as 
soon  as  it  was  finished.  It  was  several  months  from  the 
time  it  was  finished  until  it  was  dedicated.  There  had  to  be 
an  appropriate  time.  It  must  be  on  the  occasion  of  one  of 
the  great  national  feasts ;  so  it  was  probably  several  months 
after  the  house  was  completed  before  the  dedication  services 
took  place. 

The  first  thing  was  to  secure  a  great  convocation  of  the 
people,  and  it  is  repeatedly  stated  that  from  Hamath  on  the 
north,  or  from  the  Euphrates  River,  unto  the  River  of  Egypt 
on  the  south,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land 
the  princes,  the  rules  of  the  people,  the  representative  men, 
were  all  commanded  to  be  present.  So  it  was  a  very  great 
national  convocation.  The  next  step  was  to  bring  into  this 
house  all  of  the  sacred  things  that  survived  from  Moses' 
time,  and  including  those  that  had  been  prepared  by  David. 
So  with  great  ceremony  the  old  tent  that  Moses  built,  the 
brazen  altar  of  burnt  offerings,  the  table  for  the  shew- 
bread  and  the  golden  candlestick,  were  all  brought  and  put 
in  this  temple.  Those  of  them  no  longer  usable,  for 
instance  the  tent,  and  a  great  many  of  the  old-time  utensils, 
were  stored  away  and  preserved  as  relics,  including  the 
brazen  serpent  Moses  had  made.  We  hear  of  that  in  a  later 
reign  and  find  out  the  last  disposition  of  it.     Then  the  Ark 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  297 

itself  was  brought  from  the  tent  in  which  David  had  placed 
it,  and  it  was  put  in  its  place  in  the  Most  Holy  Place.  It 
was  necessary  to  make  a  new  lid  for  it,  or  mercy  seat.  A 
long  time  had  elapsed,  nearly  500  years,  since  it  was  made, 
and  when  they  opened  it  there  was  found  in  it  nothing  but 
the  two  tables  of  stone  upon  which  God  had  inscribed  the 
decalogue.  From  the  Pentateuch  we  know  that  other  things 
had  been  put  there.  For  instance,  Aaron's  rod  that  budded, 
the  pot  of  manna,  and  quite  a  number  of  things  were  put 
by  the  side  of  the  Ark,  but  when  they  brought  that  Ark  in 
that  is  all  there  was  in  it.  Probably  at  the  time  it  was  cap- 
tured by  the  Philistines  some  of  these  things  were  taken  out. 

The  preliminary  steps  of  the  dedication  were :  ( i )  Plac- 
ing in  the  treasury  of  the  house  all  the  things  dedicated  by 
David.  (2)  Placing  all  the  sacred  vessels  and  furniture  in 
proper  position.  (3)  The  offering  of  multitudinous  sacri- 
fices. (4)  The  priests  carrying  into  the  Most  Holy  Place  the 
Ark  of  the  Covenant.  (5)  As  the  priest  issues  from  the 
Most  Holy  Place,  and  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  other 
priests  standing  east  of  the  altar  blow  their  trumpets,  and 
the  great  Levite-choir  bursts  into  a  song  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving,  with  cymbals  and  other  instruments,  saying, 
"For  He  is  good;  for  His  mercy  endureth  forever."  (6) 
Then  the  cloud,  symbol  of  divine  presence  and  glory,  filled 
all  the  house. 

So  it  had  been  when  Moses  finished  the  tabernacle,  and 
so  it  was  at  Pentecost,  after  the  Lord  had  built  His  church, 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  came  down  in  consecrating,  attesting 
power. 

Now,  having  all  the  sacred  things  in  place,  Solomon  had 
a  platform  of  brass  erected,  about  seven  feet  square,  for 
himself,  a  kind  of  pulpit,  so  that  he  would  be  sufficiently 
lifted  up  above  the  people  to  be  seen  as  well  as  heard,  and 
we  now  note  a  singular  fact,  viz. :  that  Solomon  acted  as 
both  king  and  high  priest,  a  royal  priest,  a  priest  on  a 


298  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

throne,  and  all  through  his  life,  he  seems  not  only  to  per- 
form the  functions  of  the  high  priest,  but  he  keeps  the 
entire  priesthood  subject  to  his  immediate  control.  Noth- 
ing is  more  evident  in  the  study  of  his  life  than  that  the 
throne,  in  this  case  the  civil  power,  kept  the  priesthood,  the 
religious  power,  in  subservience. 

Solomon's  posture  in  this  dedication  was  standing  at  the 
introduction,  standing  when  he  goes  to  pronounce  the  bene- 
diction, but  in  offering  prayer,  he  kneels,  and  that  is  the 
first  place  in  the  Bible  where  kneeling  for  prayer  is  men- 
tioned. You  read  in  the  Bible  about  standing  to  pray  and 
sitting  to  pray,  and  here  we  have  kneeling  to  pray,  showing 
that  the  posture  is  not  essential  to  the  act.  One  can  pray 
lying  down,  but  kneeling  is  very  reverential,  and  congrega- 
tions should  observe  one  form. 

Standing  up  before  the  people,  his  opening  address 
reverts  to  the  fact  of  God's  promise  to  David  that  a  son 
should  succeed  him,  and  that  this  son  should  build  Him  a 
house,  and  God's  promise  to  live  in  the  house  when  it  was 
built.  He  then  commences  his  prayer,  and  it  is  a  very 
remarkable  one.  His  first  petition  is  that  the  Lord  would 
accept  and  continually  look  toward  this  structure,  really 
inhabit  it  and  be  present  in  it.  The  other  elements  of  the 
petition  are  clearly  set  forth  in  the  text  here.  Look  on  page 
i8o  of  the  Harmony.  First,  the  position  with  reference  to 
the  making  of  an  oath  where  there  is  an  issue  between 
neighbors,  and  the  difficulty  cannot  be  settled  by  outside  tes- 
timony, then  all  oaths  shall  be  made  before  God.  A  man, 
as  in  the  presence  of  God,  shall  solemnly  swear  that  what  he 
says  is  the  correct  version  of  the  case.  That  is  called  an 
appeal  to  the  judgment  of  God.  It  was  a  favorite  method 
of  settling  matters  throughout  the  middle  ages.  For 
instance,  a  nobleman  might  testify  about  a  case,  another 
challenge  his  testimony,  and  they  would  agree  to  refer  it  to 
the  arbitrament  of  God,  as  decided  in  battle,  and  the  two 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  299 

knights  would  come  out  and  fight  in  the  presence  of  many 
witnesses  with  judges  governing  all  the  forms  of  it,  and 
trusting  to  God  that  the  right  should  triumph  in  that  fight. 

In  Ivanhoe,  you  have  an  account  of  an  appeal  to  the  judg- 
ment of  God  in  the  fight  between  Ivanhoe  and  Sir  Brian  de 
Bois-Guilbert  in  order  to  settle  a  charge  against  the  Jewess, 
Rebecca.  She  appealed  to  the  trial  by  combat  and  said  let 
God  say  if  she  was  a  witch,  as  they  charged,  and  so  the  case 
was  fought  out.  Hundreds  of  instances  are  noticed  in  his- 
tory, romance  and  poetry  of  this  appeal  to  God.  Another 
method  of  appeal,  mentioned  also  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  is 
that  when  one  was  found  to  have  died  by  violence,  all  of 
those  whose  circumstances  made  it  possible  that  they  might 
have  participated  in  that  murder  were  required  to  come  up 
before  the  judge  and  with  the  murdered  man's  body 
shrouded  in  a  white  sheet,  put  their  finger  on  the  dead  man 
and  swear  that  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  that  murder,  and 
the  legend  taught  that  if  the  real  murderer  did  come  and  put 
his  hand  on  the  man,  then  blood  would  flow  out  from  the 
wound  and  thus  convict  him.  Now  Solomon  prayed  that  in 
any  case  of  issue  between  two  neighbors,  where  there  were 
no  means  of  settling  it  by  outside  testimony,  and  they  come 
before  God,  that  God  would  decide  the  case  so  as  to  justify 
the  innocent  and  condemn  the  guilty. 

His  second  petition  is  with  reference  to  defeat  in  battle. 
This  people  is  a  glorious  people.  War  will  doubtless  arise, 
and  they  that  go  out  may  be  defeated.  If  they  be  defeated, 
he  says  it  will  be  on  account  of  their  sins,  and,  convicted  of 
sin  by  public  defeat,  if  they  there  on  that  battlefield  turn 
toward  the  temple  and  pray  God  to  forgive  the  sin,  then 
Solomon  asks  that  their  national  sin  be  forgiven. 

He  next  considers  the  case  of  droughts.  That  whole 
country  is  subject  to  drought,  and  it  is  easy  for  all  the 
sources  of  Hfe  to  be  dried  up  in  severe  drought.  Drought 
in  the  Bible  is  represented  as  serving  Jehovah ;  that  it  comes 


300  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

from  Him.  Elijah  prayed  that  it  might  not  rain  for  three 
years  and  six  months,  and  it  didn't  rain,  and  he  prayed  that 
it  might  rain,  and  it  rained.  Now  he  says,  "when  a  time  of 
drought  comes  on  this  land  on  account  of  sin,  if  this  people 
pray  toward  this  temple,  asking  God  to  open  the  windows  of 
Heaven  and  send  rain  upon  the  land,  then  hear  thou  in 
Heaven  and  forgive  the  sin  and  send  rain."  You  notice 
how  he  is  connecting  the  temple  with  all  the  great  vicissi- 
tudes of  life. 

Following  that  come  famines  and  pestilences.  Famines 
may  result  from  wars,  in  destroying  the  products  of  the 
land,  or  they  may  result  from  plagues,  as  of  locusts.  Now, 
when  a  famine  or  a  pestilence,  or  a  contagious  or  epidemic 
disease,  comes — and  the  whole  country  was  subject  to  them, 
as  we  would  have  here  in  this  country,  if  there  should  come 
the  Asiatic  cholera,  or  the  yellow  fever — then  let  the  people 
pray,  and  his  petition  is  that  when  these  displays  of  divine 
wrath  against  the  sins  of  men  are  made,  that  they  will 
remember  that  there  at  Jerusalem  in  the  temple  is  a  throne 
of  grace  unto  which  any  man  may  come  boldly  in  time  of 
need  and  ask  divine  interposition  and  pardon.  We  will  find 
numerous  examples  of  all  these  in  the  history  as  we  go  on. 

He  then  takes  the  case  of  a  stranger.  This  is  a  beautiful 
thought.  Some  stranger  from  a  foreign  country,  not  one  of 
the  chosen  people  of  Israel,  may  be  in  exile,  banished  from 
his  own  land,  no  light  from  heaven,  seemingly,  by  the  selec- 
tion of  Israel  barred  from  the  commonwealth  of  God,  yet  if 
this  stranger  comes  to  that  temple  and  lifts  up  his  heart  to 
God,  then  Solomon  prays  that  the  Lord  will  hear  that 
stranger.  That  gets  to  be  a  very  big  item  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament gospel.  You  remember  Paul  says  to  the  Ephesians, 
"Ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow  citi- 
zens with  the  saints  and  of  the  household  of  God."  In  this 
prayer  of  Solomon  is  a  forecast  of  the  abrogation  of  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  between  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile. 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  301 

All  peoples,  all  races,  tribes,  tongues  and  kindreds  may  come 
before  the  Lord.  Paul  enunciated  it  in  Mars'  Hill  when 
he  said,  "God  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  that 
inhabit  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  appointed  their  seasons 
and  their  boundaries  with  a  view  that  they  might  seek  after 
Him  and  find  Him."  Now  if  a  stranger  comes  to  this 
house  of  God  and  honestly  seeks  a  blessing  from  God,  he 
may  find  it.  That  is  a  good  thought.  While  our  houses  of 
worship  are  not  temples,  yet  they  ought  to  be  places  attrac- 
tive to  strangers.  "Here  the  people  of  God  are  meeting 
and  I  am  an  outsider.  Will  I  be  welcome?  Is  there  any- 
thing here  for  me?  Will  anyone  speak  a  word  of  comfort 
or  peace  to  my  soul  ?" 

When  I  was  pastor  of  the  First  Church  in  Waco,  two 
deacons  had  a  special  duty.  Every  Sunday  morning,  as 
soon  as  the  bell  tapped  to  call  the  Sunday  School  together 
for  its  final  exercises,  these  two  deacons  arose  and  went 
down  on  the  streets  of  Waco  and  spent  the  time  till  the 
opening  song  of  the  church  service  inviting  strangers  on  the 
streets  to  come  to  church.  One  notable  incident  occurred. 
They  brought  a  man  in  that  way  one  day  and  he  was  con- 
verted. I  think  I  never  heard  anything  more  touching  than 
his  relation  of  the  fact  that  a  very  gentlemanly  old  man  saw 
him  on  the  street  where  he  was  wandering  without  money, 
no  place  to  go,  without  a  friend  in  the  world,  and  asked  him 
to  come  to  church,  which  led  to  his  salvation. 

Solomon  then  takes  up  the  case  of  battle.  This  is  before 
the  battle  is  joined.  Is  there  such  a  thing  as  the  decision  of 
battle  by  the  Alrnighty?  Infidels  adopt  the  theory  of  the 
French  Marshal — that  God  favors  the  heaviest 'battalions  in 
the  fight.  But  the  battle  is  not  always  to  the  strong. 
Patrick  Henry  insisted  upon  that  in  his  speech  before  the 
House  of  Burgesses.  Solomon  wanted  that  thought  fixed 
in  the  very  hearts  of  his  people,  that  before  they  fought  they 
should  pray.     At  the  great  battle  of  Agincourt,  when  a  very 


S02  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

small  English  army  was  surrounded  by  an  enormous  French 
army,  say  25,000  against  100,000,  just  before  the  fight  the 
English  army  prayed  and  the  French  king  says,  "Are  they 
prostating  themselves  in  homage  to  us  already?  Do  they 
acknowledge  their  defeat?"  One  who  knew  them  replied 
to  the  king,  "No,  sire.  They  are  taking  their  case  to  their 
God,  and  they  will  fight  the  better  for  it  when  they  get  up 
oif  their  knees."  One  of  the  soldiers,  in  the  English  civil 
war,  remarked  to  Prince  Rupert  that  he  feared  Cromwell's 
Ironsides  when  they  knelt  and  prayed  just  before  a  fight 
and  rose  singing,  "Let  God  arise  and  His  enemies  be  scat- 
tered." In  the  book  of  the  Maccabees  there  is  a  marvelous 
illustration  of  this,  when  Judas  Maccabasus  with  10,000  men 
defeated  100,000,  having  made  a  solemn  appeal  to  the  God 
of  battles  before  the  issue  was  joined. 

It  is  related  as  an  incident  of  colonial  history  that  in  the 
war  between  France  and  England,  with  the  battlefield  over 
in  this  country,  that  the  French  at  a  serious  crisis  dispatched 
a  great  fleet  with  3,000  soldiers  and  40,000  stands  of  arms 
to  turn  the  scale,  and  as  that  armament  approached  this 
continent,  the  colonists  felt  that  if  it  arrived  safely  they 
were  lost,  and  so  the  preachers  gathered  the  people  for 
prayer  that  God  might  save  them  from  this  armament,  and 
even  as  they  prayed  a  storm  came  and  scattered  the  fleet, 
wrecking  many  of  the  vessels,  drowning  most  of  the 
soldiers,  and  sinking  most  of  their  munitions  of  war. 

The  climax  of  Solomon's  prayer  anticipates  a  time  when 
his  people,  on  account  of  very  grievous  sin,  shall  be  carried 
into  captivity,  their  city  taken,  and  over  there  in  a  land  of 
exile  they  should  become  slaves  of  a  foreign  power.  In  this 
dire  disaster,  if  they  should  repent  and  remember  and  look 
back  toward  Jerusalem  and  to  this  house,  then  might  the 
Lord  forgive  them  there  and  restore  them  to  their  land. 
We  see  Daniel  carrying  out  this  thought,  as  every  day  he 
would  open  his  window  and  look  toward  Jerusalem  and 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  303 

pray,  doing  just  what  this  prayer  suggests.  Against  the 
royal  edict  he  would  turn  toward  the  temple  and  pray.  In 
Daniel  9  we  find  a  famous  prayer  confessing  the  sins  of  the 
people  and  repeating  the  promise  in  the  prophecy  of 
Jeremiah  that  the  seventy  years  of  captivity  is  nearly  out, 
and  crying  out,  "Oh  Lord,  hear!  Oh  Lord,  forgive,"  and 
even  while  he  is  praying  an  angel  comes,  touches  him  and 
tells  him  that  his  prayer  is  heard  and  shows  him  that  not 
only  will  they  be  restored  at  that  time,  but  unveils  the 
prophecy  concerning  the  restoration  and  rebuilding  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  length  of  time  to  elapse  between  that 
event  and  the  birth  of  the  long-looked  for  Messiah,  as  you 
will  find  in  the  conclusion  of  the  ninth  chapter. 

Having  offered  this  great  prayer,  Solomon  arose  and  pro- 
nounced the  benediction.  As  soon  as  this  prayer  ended, 
confirmation  came  in  a  very  remarkable  way.  Fire  came 
down  from  Heaven  and  burned  up  the  sacrifices  that  had 
been  placed  upon  the  altar,  and  not  only  that,  but  God 
appears  to  Solomon  as  He  had  appeared  to  him  at  Gibeon, 
and  uses  this  language,  which  Spurgeon  makes  the  text  of 
one  of  his  greatest  sermons :  "And  Jehovah  said  unto  him, 
I  have  heard  thy  prayer  and  thy  supplication,  that  thou 
hast  made  before  me!  I  have  hallowed  this  house,  which 
thou  hast  built  to  put  my  name  there  forever."  On  the  next 
page  it  says,  "Now  I  have  chosen  and  hallowed  this  house, 
that  my  name  may  be  there  forever ;  and  mine  eyes  and  my 
heart  shall  be  there  perpetually."  In  another  place  He  says, 
"My  hands  shall  be  there."  Now  Spurgeon  takes  for  a 
text:  "My  name  shall  be  there,  my  eyes  shall  be  there,  my 
heart  shall  be  there,  my  hands  shall  be  there."  "Whoever 
comes  to  that  place  of  worship,  I  see  him.  Whoever  prays, 
I  hear  him.  Whoever  pleads,  I  love  him  and  I  save  him  by 
my  hand."  Spurgeon  makes  a  great  sermon  out  of  it,  and 
I  suggest  it  as  a  good  text. 

We  note  the  permanent  use  of  the  temple :  "Then  Solo- 


304  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

mon  offered  burnt  offerings  unto  the  Lord  on  the  altar  of 
the  Lord  which  he  had  built  before  the  porch  even  as  the 
duty  of  every  day  required."  That  is  the  daily  sacrifice, 
offering  according  to  the  commandment  of  Moses  on  the 
Sabbaths,  then  there  are  the  weekly  sacrifices,  and  on  the 
new  moons,  which  are  the  monthly  sacrifices;  and  then  on 
the  great  feast  days  three  times  in  the  year.  There  you 
have  the  whole  cycle  of  the  sacrifices  to  be  offered  in  the 
temple.  Moses  provided  for  morning  and  evening  sacrifices 
in  the  tabernacle.  Perhaps  you  have  read  "The  Prince  of 
the  House  of  David"  by  Ingraham,  an  Episcopalian 
preacher.  He  represents  the  young  Jewish  lady  that  came 
from  Alexandria  on  a  visit  to  Jerusalem  as  being  waked  up 
just  as  the  dawn  flushed  the  eastern  sky;  the  silver  trum- 
pets began  to  blow,  and  as  those  trumpets  were  blown  every- 
body rushed  to  the  housetops,  and  while  they  were  looking 
at  the  temple  a  great  white  cloud  of  incense  rose  up  over 
the  temple  and  ascended  to  heaven,  representing  the  morning 
prayers  of  the  people,  and  they  on  the  housetops  prostrated 
themselves  at  the  time  of  the  incense  and  offered  their 
morning  prayers.  That  occurred  every  evening  also,  and  it 
could  be  seen  by  everybody  in  the  city,  the  going  up  of  that 
great  cloud  of  incense.  They  could  hear  the  sound  of  those 
trumpets  calling  to  prayer  morning  and  evening.  Solomon 
provided  according  to  the  ritual  of  Moses  and  David  that 
these  daily  sacrifices  should  never  be  neglected  in  that  Tem- 
ple, nor  the  sabbatical,  or  weekly,  nor  the  monthly,  nor  the 
annual  sacrifices  in  the  times  of  the  great  feasts. 

I  will  devote  the  rest  of  the  chapter  to  the  glory  of  Solo- 
mon. You  will  note  these  words:  "And  the  King  made 
silver  and  gold  to  be  in  Jerusalem  as  stones,  and  cedars  made 
he  to  be  as  the  sycamore  trees  that  are  in  the  lowland  for 
abundance.  So  King  Solomon  exceeded  all  the  kings  of  the 
earth  in  riches  and  in  wisdom.  And  all  the  earth  sought  the 
presence  of  Solomon,  to  hear  his  wisdom,  which  God  had 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  305 

put  in  his  heart,  and  they  brought  every  man  his  present, 
vessels  of  silver,  and  vessels  of  gold,  and  raiment,  and 
armor,  and  spices,  horses,  and  mules,  a  rate  year  by  year." 
Again,  "And  Solomon  ruled  over  all  the  kingdoms  from  the 
river  unto  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  and  unto  the  border 
of  Egypt:  they  brought  him  presents,  and  served  Solomon 
all  the  days  of  his  life.  For  he  had  dominion  over  all  the 
region  on  this  side  the  river,  from  Tiphsah  even  to  Gaza, 
over  all  the  kings  on  this  side  the  river:  and  he  had  peace 
on  all  sides  round  about  him.  Judah  and  Israel  were  many, 
as  the  sand  which  is  by  the  sea  in  multitude,  eating  and 
drinking,  and  every  man  under  his  vine  and  under  his  fig 
tree,  from  Dan  even  to  Beersheba,  all  the  days  of  Solomon." 
As  a  sample  of  the  glory  of  Solomon,  we  have  the  visit 
of  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  who  came,  as  our  Lord  said,  from 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  Commentators  are  divided 
as  to  whether  she  was  a  queen  over  that  best  watered  and 
most  fertile  part  of  southern  Arabia,  or  whether  she  was  the 
Queen  of  Abyssinia  just  across  the  dividing  water  in  Africa. 
Most  modem  commentators  make  her  the  queen  of  what  is 
called  "Arabia  Felix,"  but  my  own  judgment  is  that  she  was 
the  queen  of  Abyssinia.  The  tradition  of  her  reign  lingers 
there  where  recently  King  Menelik  defeated  the  Italian 
armies,  and  where  they  still  keep  up  certain  forms  of  the 
Christian  religion,  whence  also  in  New  Testament  times 
came  the  Ethiopian  eunuch  whom  Philip  led  to  Christ.  By 
combining  I  Kings  lo:  1-13  with  Matt.  12:42  you  may  make 
a  great  sermon  with  these  heads:  (i)  She  heard  a  rumor 
that  there  was  a  wise  man  who  could  answer  any  question. 
(2)  She  had  hard  questions  knocking  at  the  door  of  her 
heart,  as  every  woman  has.  She  determined,  at  any  cost, 
to  have  these  problems  solved,  so  she  makes  this  great  jour- 
ney, and  when  she  gets  there  and  he  answers  all  of  her 
questions  and  she  sees  his  glory,  his  temple,  the  way  by 
which  he  went  up  into  the  temple,  the  apparel  of  his  serv- 


306  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

ants,  there  was  no  more  breath  in  her,  that  is,  she  fainted. 
You  know  some  people  are  so  finely  strung  that  they  will 
faint  when  looking  at  a  great  picture,  or  on  being  stirred  by 
great  music.  From  her  words,  ''The  half  was  not  told  me," 
we  get  our  hymn,  "The  half  has  never  yet  been  told." 

My  own  sermon  on  Matthew  12:42  had  these  heads: 
(i)  There  shall  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead.  (2)  It  will 
be  a  general  resurrection,  (3)  followed  by  a  general  judg- 
ment, (4)  whose  determining  principle  shall  be:  Men  are 
judged  according  to  their  light. 

We  may  close  this  discussion  with  a  brief  account  of  Solo- 
mon's relations  with  other  governments. 

1.  Phoenicia.  He  inherited  from  his  father  a  most  val- 
uable alliance  with  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  whose  fleets  con- 
trolled the  Mediterranean  Sea. 

2.  Egypt.  His  marriage  with  Pharaoh's  daughter  held 
the  friendship  of  the  ruling  dynasty  in  Egypt. 

3.  Friendly  alliance  with  the  Queen  of  Sheba. 

4.  In  David's  time  the  Hittite  nation  at  Hamath  paid 
tribute.    Solomon  conquered  the  country. 

5.  By  intermarriage  he  secured  friendly  relations  with 
many  countries,  as  most  of  his  marriages  were  political. 

6.  By  commerce  through  the  Mediterranean  he  held 
friendly  relations  with  the  nations  on  its  shores  as  far  as 
Spain. 

7.  By  commerce  with  the  archipelagoes  of  the  Indian 
and  Pacific  Oceans,  he  held  friendly  relations  with  the 
Orient,  and  Africa. 

8.  By  land-traffic  he  held  friendly  relations  with  Arabia, 
Mesopotamia  and  the  nations  around  the  Caspian  Sea. 

QUESTIONS 

1.  What  promise  of  Jehovah  was  made  to  Solomon  when  he 
commenced  to  build  the  temple? 

2.  What  command  of  Jehovah,  through  Moses,  was  fulfilled 
in  the  building  of  the  temple? 


DEDICATION  OF  THE  TEMPLE  307 

3.  What  then,  in  brief,  were  the  purposes  of  the  temple? 

4.  What  effect  has  this  dedication  on  all  subsequent  dedications 
of  buildings? 

5.  At  what  annual  festival  was  the  temple  dedicated? 

6.  What  the  steps  of  offering  the  house,  and  how   the  divine 
acceptance  signified  ? 

7.  What  similar  event  occurred  in  Moses'  day,  and  what  greater 
event  in  the  New  Testament  day? 

8.  Describe  the  platform  occupied  by  Solomon,  and  his  posture 
in  the  several  parts  of  the  dedication. 

9.  In  what  double  capacity  does  he  act? 

10.  What  the  salient  points  of  his  opening  address? 

11.  The  salient  points  of  his  prayer? 

12.  What  evidence  in  later  days  that  in  accord  with  Solomon's 
petition  his  people  prayed  toward  Jerusalem? 

13.  In  what  signal  way  did  confirmation  come  from  heaven  that 
his  prayer  was  answered? 

14.  Distinguish  between  the  two  manifestations  of  the  glory  of  the 
Cloud,  II  Chron.  5:  13;  7:  1-3. 

15.  What  says  the  text  of  the  glory  of  Solomon,  and  the  extent 
of  his  kingdom?     (See  I  Kings  4:20-25;  10:18-25). 

16.  What  our  Lord's  reference  to  Solomon's  glory? 

17.  Recite  the  story  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba.  Where  her  country? 
What  our  Lord's  reference  to  it,  and  what  the  sermon  outline  on 
Matt.  12:42? 

18.  What  Solomon's  relations  to  foreign  nations? 

19.  When  and  why  Jehovah's  second  appearance  to  Solomon? 


XXX 

THE  FALL  AND  END  OF  SOLOMON 

Scriptures:  References  in  Harmony,  pp.  193-194. 

SEE  I  Kings  11 : 1-43  and  H  Chron.  9 : 29-31,  with  which 
compare    (i)   Ex.  34:16;  Deut.  y:^,  4;  Ezra  9:1; 
Neh.  13:23.     (2)  Deut.  17:14-20.     (3)  The  two  vis- 
itations   of   Jehovah,    I    Kings    3 :  14 ;   9 : 4-9 ;    H    Chron. 
7: 17-22.     (4)  The  whole  book  of  Ecclesiastes. 

1.  When  Solomon  became  old  he  fell  away  from  Jehovah 
in  heart  and  hfe. 

2.  He,  himself,  furnishes  the  motto  for  a  heading  of  this 
part  of  his  hfe,  "Better  is  a  poor  and  wise  youth  than  an  old 
and  foolish  king,  who  knoweth  not  how  to  receive  admoni- 
tion any  more,"  Eccles.  4: 13. 

3.  And  he,  himself,  fitly  describes  a  miserable  and  dark- 
ened old  age,  thus : 

"Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth,  and  let  thy  heart  cheer 
thee  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in  the  ways  of  thy  heart, 
and  in  the  sight  of  thine  eyes ;  but  know  thou  that  for  all  these 
things  God  will  bring  thee  into  judgment.  Therefore  remove  sorrow 
from  thy  heart,  and  put  away  evil  from  thy  flesh ;  for  youth  and  the 
dawn  of  life  are  vanity.  Remember  also  thy  Creator  in  the  days 
of  thy  youth,  before  the  evil  days  come,  and  the  years  draw  nigh, 
when  thou  shalt  say,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  them;  before  the  sun, 
and  the  light,  and  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  are  darkened,  and  the 
clouds  return  after  the  rain ;  in  the  day  when  the  keepers  of  the 
house  shall  tremble,  and  the  strong  men  shall  bow  themselves,  and 
the  grinders  cease  because  they  are  few,  and  those  that  look  out 
of  the  windows  shall  be  darkened,  and  the  doors  shall  be  shut  in 
the  street;  when  the  sound  of  the  grinding  is  low,  and  one  shall 
rise  up  at  the  voice  of  a  bird,  and  all  the  daughters  of  music  shall 
be  brought  low;  yea,  they  shall  be  afraid  of  that  which  is  high,  and 
terrors  shall  be  in  the  way;  and  the  almond  tree  shall  blossom,  and 
the  grasshopper  shall  be  a  burden,  and  desire  shall  fail;  because 

308 


FALL  AND  END  OF  SOLOMON  309 

man  goeth  to  his  everlasting  home,  and  the  mourners  go  about  the 
streets :  before  the  silver  cord  is  loosed,  or  the  golden  bowl  is 
broken,  or  the  pitcher  is  broken  at  the  fountain,  or  the  wheel  broken 
at  the  cistern,  and  the  dust  returneth  to  the  earth  as  it  was,  and 
the  spirit  returneth  unto  God  who  gave  it.  Vanity  of  vanities,  saith 
the  Preacher;  all  is  vanity,"  Eccl.  ii :  9 — 12:  8. 

4.  The  immediate  occasion  of  his  fall  was  the  influence 
of  his  foreign  idolatrous  wives. 

5.  They  led  him  astray  on  these  lines  :  ( i )  The  sensual 
indulgence  of  harem  life  sapped  his  physical  vitality,  ener- 
vated his  mind  and  blunted  the  perception  and  dulled  the 
sensitiveness  of  all  his  moral  faculties.  (2)  Being  them- 
selves idolaters,  they  induced  him  to  provide  temples  for  the 
idols  of  their  own  countries.  (3)  To  suit  their  convenience 
they  led  him  to  locate  these  houses  and  altars  of  idolatry 
over  against  God's  holy  temple.  (4)  They  finally  led  him 
to  participate  himself  in  this  idol  worship. 

6.  His  sin  consisted  of  these  elements : 

(i)  Primarily  and  mainly  he  sinned  grievously  against 
Jehovah,  who  had  exalted  him.  (2)  He  grossly  violated  the 
kingdom  charter.  (3)  He  openly  violated  the  Mosaic  law 
of  marriage. 

7.  His  sin  against  Jehovah  may  be  thus  particularized: 
(i)  It  was  open  violation  of  both  the  first  and  second  com- 
mandment of  the  decalogue.  (2)  It  was  against  the  light  of 
two  visitations  from  Jehovah,  the  second  one  particularly 
warning  him  against  the  sin.  (3)  In  placing  the  idol  houses 
over  against  the  temple  it  was  flaunting  an  insult  in  Jehovah's 
face.  (4)  It  was  a  sin  against  Jehovah's  revelation,  and  an 
abuse  of  the  wisdom  given  to  seek  through  philosophy  the 
chief  good  and  chief  duty  of  man,  as  he  himself  confesses  he 
did  in  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes.  (5)  It  was  a  sin  against 
Jehovah  as  the  supreme  and  only  satisfying  portion  of  the 
soul  to  seek  happiness  by  experiment  in  wealth,  pleasure, 
luxury  and  other  ways  as  he  confesses  he  did  in  the  book 
of  Ecclesiastes. 


810  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

8.  He  sinned  against  the  charter  of  the  kingdom  in  these 
particulars:  (i)  The  charter  says,  "He  shall  not  multiply 
horses  to  himself,"  it  being  against  the  divine  purpose  that 
his  people  should  depend  on  cavalry  and  chariots.  But  this 
is  what  he  did :  "And  Solomon  had  40,000  stalls  of  horses 
for  his  chariots,  and  12,000  horsemen,"  I  Kings  4:26.  (2) 
The  charter  said  "Neither  shall  he  multiply  wives  unto  him- 
self, that  his  heart  turn  not  away."  But  this  is  what  he  did : 
"Now  King  Solomon  loved  many  foreign  women,  together 
with  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  women  of  the  Moabites,  Am- 
monites, Edomites,  Sidonians,  and  Hittites ;  of  the  nations 
concerning  which  Jehovah  said  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 
Ye  shall  not  go  among  them,  neither  shall  they  come  among 
you ;  for  surely  they  will  turn  away  your  heart  after  their 
gods;  Solomon  clave  unto  these  in  love.  And  he  had  700 
wives,  princesses,  and  300  concubines ;  and  his  wives  turned 
away  his  heart.  For  it  came  to  pass  when  Solomon  was  old, 
that  his  wives  turned  away  his  heart  after  other  gods ;  and 
his  heart  was  not  perfect  with  Jehovah  his  God,  as  was  the 
heart  of  David  his  father,"  I  Kings  11 : 1-4.  (3)  The  charter 
said,  "He  shall  not  greatly  multiply  to  himself  silver  and 
gold,"  but  he  filled  his  cofifers  with  gold,  silver  and  jewels 
beyond  computation  in  value.  (4)  The  charter  said,  "His 
heart  shall  not  be  lifted  up  above  his  brethren,"  but  for  dis- 
play, and  for  the  buildings  of  his  wives  and  their  extrava- 
gant support,  he  raised  forced  levies  of  workmen  from  his 
own  people,  and  imposed  onerous  taxes  which  caused  a 
revolt  in  the  days  of  his  son,  Rehoboam,  and  the  loss  of 
ten  tribes.  See  I  Kings  4:6;  5:13,  14;  7:19-23;  11:28; 
12:4. 

9.  He  sinned  against  the  sanctity  of  the  Mosaic  law  of 
marriage  in  taking  wives  from  nations  of  the  Canaanites  and 
other  idolatrous  nations.  See  Ex.  34:16;  Deut.  7:3,  4,  as 
interpreted  in  Ezra  9:1  and  Neh.  13:23,  and  compare  I 
Kings  II :  I,  2. 


FALL  AND  END  OF  SOLOMON  311 

10.  We  find  somewhat  of  a  parallel  in  Louis  XIV  of 
France,  who  reduced  his  nation  to  pauperism  to  support  his 
extravagant  displays  and  mistresses,  so  that  in  the  days  of 
Louis  XVI  came  a  revolution  that  painted  hell  on  the  sky. 

11.  The  sin  of  Solomon  greatly  provoked  Jehovah,  who 
sternly  denounced  these  penalties  :  ( i )  The  greater  part  of 
the  kingdom  was  rent  from  him  and  given  to  his  servant,  but 
for  David's  sake,  the  execution  was  stayed  till  Solomon  died, 
I  Kings  11:9-13.  (2)  Adversaries  were  stirred  up,  ready 
to  strike  on  the  first  opportunity.  (3)  These  adversaries 
were  Hadad,  the  Edomite,  who  in  David's  time  had  shel- 
tered in  Egypt ;  Rezon,  the  Syrian,  who  sheltered  in  Damas- 
cus and  who  abhorred  Israel ;  Jeroboam,  the  Ephrathite, 
whom  Solomon  promoted,  but  who,  having  been  informed 
by  Jehovah's  prophet  that  he  would  rule  over  ten  tribes,  did 
not  wait  on  Jehovah's  time  but  instantly  revolted,  but  when 
Solomon  sought  to  kill  him,  fled  to  Eg}^pt  and  sheltered 
there. 

12.  The  fearful  consequences  of  Solomon's  sin  were 
sweeping  and  far-reaching,  as  appears  from  these  facts : 
(i)  The  contrast  between  the  glorious  unity  when  David 
was  made  king  over  all  Israel  (See  I  Chron.  11:1-3  and 
12:23-40)  and  the  disunion  under  Solomon's  son  (See 
I  Kings  12:1-19).  (2)  This  division  resulted  in  the  idol- 
atry and  destruction  of  the  ten  tribes  except  the  elect  rem- 
nants that  returned  to  Judah,  thus  preserving  and  perpetu- 
ating all  the  tribes.  (3)  The  idolatry  of  the  ten  tribes  was 
communicated  to  Judah  in  Ahab's  day,  threatening  the  blot- 
ting out  of  all  the  tribes.  (4)  The  division  made  them  weak 
in  the  presence  of  enemies  to  both,  and  their  prestige  and 
position  among  the  nations  were  lost.  (5)  The  destruction 
of  the  ten  tribes  resulted  in  the  rise  of  the  Samaritans,  a 
mixed  people  who  rejected  all  revelation  except  the  Penta- 
teuch, and  established  a  rival  temple,  whose  pretensions  to 
superiority  persisted  till  Messiah's  time   (See  John  4:20). 


312  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

(6)  The  precedent  of  seeking  in  speculative  philosophy  and 
in  sinful  experiment  man's  chief-end,  chief-good,  chief-aim, 
was  taken  up  and  followed  by  Greek  and  Roman  philoso* 
phers — Zeno,  Epicurus,  Lucretius  and  Democritus,  Gnostics, 
Agnostics  and  modern  radical  evolutionists  even  to  this  day 
— all  adopting  his  methods  and  denying  his  conclusions. 

13.  The  question  naturally  arises :  Was  Solomon's  apos- 
tasy total  and  final,  and  is  he  today  a  lost  soul?  Adam 
Clark,  the  commentator,  like  nearly  all  Methodists,  Arminian 
in  doctrine,  teaches  that  Solomon  was  finally  and  forever 
lost;  from  which  position  the  author  dissents  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons : 

1.  The  record  expressly  teaches  that  his  apostasy  was  not 
total,  but  only  that  his  heart  toward  Jehovah  was  not  perfect 
as  was  the  heart  of  David. 

2.  That  his  apostasy  was  not  final  seems  evident  from 
the  repentance  evidenced  in  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes,  which, 
after  recounting  all  his  experiments  in  turning  from  revela- 
tion to  philosophy  and  all  ending  in  vanity,  comes  back  to 
the  conclusion  that  to  fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments 
is  the  whole  of  man. 

3.  The  promise  of  Jehovah  to  his  father  David  expressly 
forbids  the  idea  of  his  total  and  final  apostasy  in  saying, 
*'When  thy  days  are  fulfilled,  and  thou  shalt  sleep  with  thy 
fathers,  I  will  set  up  thy  seed  after  thee,  that  shall  proceed 
out  of  thy  bowels,  and  I  will  establish  his  kingdom.  He 
shall  build  a  house  for  my  name,  and  I  will  estabHsh  the 
throne  of  his  kingdom  forever.  I  will  be  his  father,  and 
he  shall  be  my  son:  if  he  commit  iniquity,  I  will  chasten  him 
with  the  rod  of  men,  and  with  the  stripes  of  the  children 
of  men,  but  my  loving  kindness  shall  not  depart  from  him, 
as  I  took  it  from  Saul,  whom  I  put  away  before  thee,"  H 
Sam.  7: 12-15.  The  contrast  here  between  Saul  and  Solo- 
mon is  very  marked.  Saul  sustained  no  filial  relation  toward 
Jehovah,  but  Solomon  did.    Saul  was  punished  as  an  alien; 


FALL  AND  END  OF  SOLOMON  313 

Solomon  was  chastised  as  a  son.    The  Holy  Spirit  was  with- 
drawn from  Saul,  but  not  from  Solomon. 

14.  Solomon's  fall  teaches  many  great  lessons,  among 
which  may  be  named : 

1.  Sensuality  in  a  man  is  like  the  dry  rot  which  crumbles 
foundation-timbers. 

2.  A  little  child  may  learn  from  revelation  in  a  day  more 
about  origin,  character,  destiny,  the  chief -end,  the  chief- 
good  and  the  chief-aim  of  man  than  all  the  speculative  phi- 
losophers throughout  the  ages  haz^e  discovered  or  will  ever 
be  able  to  discover. 

3.  Man  himself,  in  his  moral  dignity,  is  more  than  all  his 
learning,  accomplishments,  wealth,  rank  or  social  position. 

"The  rank  is  but  the  guinea's  stamp, 
The  man's  the  gowd  for  all  that." 

4.  God  himself  is  the  only  satisfying  portion  of  the  soul. 

"Tis  no'  in  titles  nor  in  rank, 
'Tis  no'  in  wealth  like  London  bank 

To  give  us  peace  and  rest; 
If  happiness  ha'e  not  her  seat 
And  center  in  the  breast, 
We  may  be  wise,  or  rich,  or  great 

But  never  can  be  blest." 

5.  When  kings  live  in  splendor  and  luxury  and  irrespon- 
sibility to  moral  laws,  maintaining  vast,  varied  and  costly 
establishments,  the  people  must  groan  under  onerous  taxa- 
tion and  servitude  until  revolution  comes  to  paint  hell  on 
the  sky. 

6.  Men  professing  themselves  to  be  wise  become  fools 
(See  Romans  i :  22  ;  I  Cor.  i  :  18-29). 

QUESTIONS 

1.  At  what  period  of  his  life  does  Solomon  fall  away  from 
Jehovah  ? 

2.  What  motto  by  himself  would  serve  as  a  heading  for  his  fall? 

3.  How  does  he  himself  describe  an  old  age  weakened  and  made 
miserable  by  sin? 


814  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY 

4.  What  the  occasion  of  his  fall? 

5.  How  did  these  women  lead  him  astray? 

6.  Of  what  particulars  did  his  sin  consist? 

7.  Particularize  his  sin  against  Jehovah. 

8.  Particularize  his  sin  against  the  charter  of  the  kingdom. 

9.  Particularize  his  sin  against  the  sanctity  of  the  Mosaic  mar- 
riage-law. 

TO.     What  parallel  to  Solomon,  in  his  sin,  in  modern  history? 

11.  How  did  Solomon's  sin  affect  Jehovah,  and  what  penalties 
did  He  denounce? 

12.  What  facts  show  the  sweeping  and  far-reaching  consequences 
of  Solomon's  fall? 

13.  How  do  Arminians  answer  the  question:  Was  Solomon's 
ppo'stasy  total  and  final,  and  is  he  not  a  lost  soul,  and  what  the 
Biblical  reasons  for  dissent  from  this  interpretation? 

14.  What  great  lessons  from  Solomon's  fall? 

15.  How  do  you  reconcile  I  Kings  11:3  and  Canticles  6:8? 


DATE  DUE 

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Demco.  Inc.  38-293 

